Team Red Dead
by Dacerie
Summary: After Danny has already escaped the clutches of the GIW he finds himself falling through a portal into another world, where he is subsequently captured by Hydra/Weapon X and experimented on further before being rescued by this new worlds heros. After his rescue, he searches for a new way home. Updates last Saturday of the Month
1. Chapter 1

Danny leaned into the warmth of Sam and Tuckers arms as they embraced him. He'd just spent the last two days trapped in a lab in the GIW facility, and his friends had spent that time concocting the perfect plan to get him out. As far as Sam and Tucker knew, the only tests the GIW had had time to perform had been non-invasive, and he wasn't going to tell them otherwise. For now, he was just happy to be home, and his parents none the wiser, having already left to spend the weekend at Tuckers house with Sam.

"You guys are the best!" he said breathlessly as they pulled away. They both laughed.

"We're just glad you're okay, man," Tucker tells him, followed quickly by Sam.

"You can't do that to us, we were really worried about you." He can see the truth of her words in her eye's, and the fact that she would even admit that he worried her made him feel a little guilty.

"It's not my fault they can't take a hint." he opened the door behind him. "Anyway, I'll see you guys tomorrow, right?" they both answer in the affirmative, and he makes his way into the house with a sigh of relief. Home at last. "Mom! Dad! Jazz!" he shouts into the quiet house. "I'm home!"

"Jazz went to the library, sweetie." Mom says, as she pokes her head out of the kitchen. "Welcome home. Did you have a fun weekend?" Danny forced his smile into a large grin that he didn't feel entirely fit.

"It was a blast! Me and Tucker played Doomed while Sam quizzed me on the homework!"

"That's nice dear." she said with a polite smile. "Why don't you go upstairs and get cleaned up for dinner and you can tell your dad and me all about it?"

"Okay." Danny trotted up the stairs, ready for a hot shower to wash memories of white walls sprayed with green from his mind. At the top of the stairs his foot seemed to fall through the floor, which wouldn't have been surprising except that when he glanced down to pull it back up, the floor was encased in swirling, ectoplasmic green, and he shrieked in terror as he fell through. The last thing he heard before the portal closed was Jazz screaming his name.

Unlike going through the portal in the basement, this one makes his stomach feel like it's dropped out, and like he's being twisted and crushed like taffy, before it spits him out into a sterile, white walled, lab. The colour of the walls makes him feel like he's going to be sick, because the GIW had to have figured out how to get him back, and he couldn't handle that again so soon. Except that it's not quite the right white. There's streaks of dirt gathered in corners, and ruddy stains on the walls, and the GIW is nothing if not meticulous about their white. So it's not them.

An excited gasp grabs his attention, and he swivels his head towards it at the same time as he stumbles to his feet. There's a man in a lab coat, a symbol he doesn't recognise on the lapel, and it's further cemented that this is _not_ the GIW. Because underneath that white -so white- lab coat, is street clothes. Not a pure white suit, but jeans and a sweater.

"It worked!" the man exclaims, in a heavily accented voice. "An interdimensional being, pulled to me by my own genius!" and, okay. This guy is just as crazy as any of the GIW scientists, if that particular glint in his eye is anything to go by. And he'd been called 'interdimensional', which meant that it might be okay to use his powers. His eyes lit up green.

"Send me back." he stated in as level of a voice as possible. This might not be GIW, but that didn't mean that he was _safe_. The man grinned.

"Ah," he started. "That is not yet something we can do. Or want to. You will be staying for observation." 'observation' his ass. If this turned out to be anything like the GIW 'observation' would quickly turn into _experimentation_. Danny clenched his fists.

"Send. Me. _Back!_" he shouted, a little bit of a wail entering his voice, causing the tables in the room to shake.

"My, aren't you an interesting specimen." a woman's voice, smooth and unaccented, and Danny swiveled his head in her direction, to see a woman with red hair tied into a bun, and a gun holstered at her hip under her white lab coat.

She made him uneasy, reminded him a little of Spectra, with her sharp smile and calculating eyes. Like Nurse K, and her easy demeanor as she strapped him to a table and electrified it. He kind of wanted to puke.

Instead, he went intangible, and threw himself at the nearest wall. A gunshot echoed behind him, and moments later the lights went red and an alarm blared through the building. He passed through another wall before going ghost, ignoring the pain from straining his core.

He made it through several more walls, the occasional gunshot echoing behind him, before his intangibility flickered out and he ran face first into the next one. He stumbled back, a hand going to his face instinctively, before he heard another gunshot, and pain ripped through his stomach. He gasped as he collapsed to his knees, eyes going blurry as he clamped his other hand to his left side. He glanced down at the slowly spreading green, and his vision flickered as he transformed back to human. Pain throbbed through him as the green was covered over by the red of his much faster moving blood. Hot, where his ectoplasm had been cold.

Suddenly there were hands all over him, pulling him to his feet, forcing his hands behind his back as something cold and metal was clipped around his neck. His vision blurred again, and he slumped in the grip of the hands on him as they closed, and everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Peter hummed tunelessly to himself, legs swaying back and forth over the edge of the building, as he read his text book, listening for any signs of distress. It had been a quiet week though, and the cops didn't seem to need any help. Not his brand of help, at any rate. They were mostly working on investigating right now, which Peter didn't help with.

No, what Peter concentrated on was active crime. The stuff that he could stop while it was happening. The type of stuff that didn't take too much of his time away from school work or friends, or spending time with Aunt May. He'd like to pretend that that had been his idea, but it wasn't. Not really. The decision was actually one born of a very long conversation that had followed the screaming match that Aunt May had on the phone with Mr. Stark, and the subsequent dressing down of his poor decision making skills when Mr. Stark had let slip that Peter had had a building dropped on him, which she hadn't known about, because it hadn't been on the news.

As a result, he wasn't actually allowed to follow through on any of the bigger stuff that he stumbled across, and was to report directly to Mr. Stark with anything that he thought might be on the same scale as the Vulture, or anything that might require in-depth investigating. It irked him, but he understood the reasoning behind it. He also rather enjoyed the weekend access to Stark labs that had come after the dressing down that May had given Mr. Stark the next time that he had visited the apartment.

He'd been sat here for a while, nothing happening, and his light was starting to fade, so he gathered his stuff into his backpack, ready to head home, when he heard the faint sound of gunshots. Unlike the rest of the gunshots that he'd heard that evening, it was not followed by the sound of sirens, and Peter webbed his bag to the roof before taking off in the direction that they were coming from. He arrived fairly quickly, as it was pretty much just down the street from where he'd been perched, and almost kicked himself when he read the words 'Shooting Range' emblazoned across the front of the building.

He turned to head back to where he'd left his stuff when he thought he heard a scream. He froze for a moment, listening, and when nothing followed besides the sound of relieved laughter and some excited voices, too muffled to make out anything else, he shrugged it off and swung away. Might as well go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow was a lab day, and he wanted to play around with his web fluid, which was easier on an active mind.

For whatever reason, he couldn't seem to forget that scream that he thought he heard, though he tried to put it out of his head as he drifted to sleep.

* * *

When Danny blinked himself awake, his side throbbing in pain and a heavy weight at his throat, his arms wrenched behind his back, he almost expected to see white walls. Instead, he was met with the sound of dripping water, and a stereotypical movie villain type cell. Stone, or maybe concrete, made up three of the four walls. The last was a grid of iron bars, with a door set in the middle. However the wall opposite the bars, the one at his back, did not have a window. Neither did any of the others, which made the cell dark, as the only light source seemed to be a flickering fluorescent in the hallway.

The cell opposite him was empty, and he was in too much pain to drag himself to see if there was any more cells, and, if there were, if there was anyone in them. Instead, throat sore and voice cracking, he called out. "Hello?" he paused a moment to see if there was a response, and when none came, he continued. "Is anyone there?"

He moved to sit up at the continued silence, and struggled when he found that the pain in his shoulders was because his hands were cuffed behind his back. He immediately went to phase out of it, thinking that these people would have no idea how to subdue a ghost, and was shocked when he found that it didn't work. In fact, now that he'd noticed it, he couldn't feel the comforting chill of his core, either. Just like when Vlad had shot him with the plasmius maximus, minus the electrifying pain.

He struggled for several minutes, pain and panic flooding his body and constricting his chest, making it difficult to breathe. When he stopped struggling, and focused on getting his breathing back, he heard footsteps echoing down the hall, from a distance, and getting closer. If he was any judge, there were multiple, but the echoing made it difficult to tell how many. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing.

Quickly, far too quickly, the steps came to a stop. In front of his cell stood the woman that he had seen earlier, a man with a creepy grin, and several other men and women in lab coats.

"Ah, you're awake," the woman said, in that smooth voice of hers that made Danny's skin crawl. The woman gestured towards Creepy Grin Man next to her. "This is Ajax. You and him will be getting very… friendly for the foreseeable future. Have fun with your new specimen, Ajax." the last was directed to Creepy Grin Man, Ajax, before she turned and left, her heels click click clicking down the hall as she went.

Danny looked at 'Ajax'. The man was eerily silent, and his piercing stare was starting to freak Danny out.

"Nice guest room you got here." Danny said nervously when the man didn't speak. "I mean, it's a little dark, and kinda cold. Also, wet. I Lied. This is a terrible guest room. Not the worst I've stayed in, mind, but you know. Two out of five stars at best." Ajaxs' face seemed to be twitching, and he wasn't smiling anymore. "Hey, did you know that 'Ajax' is a brand of dish soap? Is that your given name? Did your parents name you after soap on purpose? You know, Ajax is a stupid name. I think I'll call you Soap Man."

Soap Man's lips twisted into a sneer. "Bring him along. And someone find me a gag." Soap Man turned and followed the same path down the hall as Creepy lady had, as the other 'scientists' opened his cell and yanked him, none too gently, too his feet.

Danny hissed in pain as the movement jostled the gunshot wound… and wasn't that an odd thing to think about. When he'd thought of getting shot before he'd always supposed that it would be with ghost weaponry, he'd never even considered how much a real gun might hurt. Or that it wouldn't heal like all his wounds from ghost fighting always had. But then, he couldn't reach his core right now, and he thought that might have something to do with his lack of a healing ability at this moment.

"Hey, careful with the merchandise!" he snapped when they dragged him through the door unceremoniously. "You'll throw off all your lab results if you damage the 'specimen'!" the last word was spat out with as much anger as Danny could muster through the fear. Someone hit him in the head and he went quiet as the world spun around him, black spots dancing in his vision. He went limp and allowed them to drag him.


	3. Chapter 3

Sister Margaret's School for Wayward Girls, or 'Hell House', depending on who you asked, was a dark, dingy, dangerous place that no sane man would traverse. Luckily for Weasel, most of his clientele was the exact opposite of _sane_, Weasel himself included, though he would deny it.

[_are you going anywhere with this?_]

"Shh! I'm trying to set the scene!"

**{Get on with it then! Stop stalling.}**

"Who the fuck are you talking to now?"

"The voices!"

"You are a strange, strange man, Wade."

Wade sighed, his grip tightening on the pointless liquor. He couldn't get drunk, not since Weapon X. Speaking of.

"Hey Weas," he started. "You heard anything 'bout, you know." Weasel raised an eyebrow at him and said nothing. **{rude}** Wade cleared his throat and tugged at his gloves. "On my last job, I heard someone say that Weapon X is back. You heard anything 'bout it?"

"Shit." Weasel looked really uncomfortable. Wade waited for him to say more. He didn't.

[_he knows something._]

**{what isn't he telling us?}**

"You _have_ heard something!" Wade accused. "Why didn't you tell me?" Weasels face did something funny with the emotions and what not.

"Look, man." he started. "You get really weird whenever that place comes up."

**{do not!}**

"No I don't!"

"Yeah, you do. You've got this whole revenge thing that you get in your head whenever anyone mentions it, and then people die."

"You're just mad that it doesn't get you any money."

"Obviously!" Weasel snapped. "Look, I heard it was back, but that's pretty much all that I know. Well, there's a rumor that the new branch is funded by Hydra, but other than that-"

"BOB!" Wade screamed at the top of his lungs. [_like a banshee._] **{or a wolf.} **[_what do wolves have to do with screaming?_] **{they yell in the middle of the night. Oh! Oh oh! Like a coyote!}** "Shut the fuck up! We're goin' to go see Bob!"

Weasels greasy head met the filthy counter of his bar with a 'thud'.

* * *

Nothing much happened the first week that Danny spent with the scientists. Pretty much all they'd done was force him to take a shower, and replace his clothes with the most uncomfortable pair of sweatpants that he'd ever worn.

Beyond the fact that someone had been in the room while he showered, nothing too uncomfortable had happened. They'd brought him to a lab, but instead of what he had expected - experiments and knifes and needles - he was met with a fairly friendly Nurse lady who checked on the gunshot wound and the wound on his chest, which had started to scar.

They took a lot of blood, though, and Danny wasn't sure why. Drawing blood once or twice was understandable, but they did it every time they brought him to the lab. They strapped him down, too. They also hooked him up to machines, and gagged him every time he left his cell.

He'd heard Soap Man grumbling to himself about loudmouths, among other things, and Danny had deduced that he wasn't the first that the man had experimented on. He never mentioned ghosts, though, only mutants, and from the way he talked, mutants were fairly common in whatever world this was.

He tried to ask what they needed so much of his blood for once, when they brought him back to his swanky guest room and ungagged him, but all he'd gotten for his trouble has a smack to the back of his head before he was unceremoniously tossed to the floor of his cell.

Danny also knew that Soap Man had been pretty excited to hear that he'd been vivisected before. He knew this, because he'd been in the room when Danny had taken his shirt off. The next time Danny was in the lab after that, he'd attempted to cut Danny back open, and he'd nearly bled out before the scientists could stitch him back together. Then they threw him back in his cell as though nothing had happened.

Danny hurt. He was cold, hungry and thirsty, and he had no idea how long he had been here, or how much longer he would be. He just wanted to go home. They treated him like he was less than human, and only fed him sporadically.

Someone opened the door of his cell and threw him him half a loaf of bread. Then the door slammed shut. Danny crawled forward and crammed the bread in his mouth. At least he wasn't so unbearably hungry anymore.

Too bad he was still just so, so cold. He couldn't reach his core.

* * *

authors note

* * *

From here on out the rating is going to change to 'M', because torture and deadpool. Thanks for sticking with me!


	4. Chapter 4

There had been a string of kidnappings in Hell's Kitchen. Well, New York City in general, but he didn't really care about anything other than his borough. Except when a problem in his area originated from somewhere else. People should know better than to fuck with his neighborhood, because now it was his problem, and they were going to regret this… just as soon as he figured out who was doing this.

"What the _fuck_ Matt?!" Foggy's voice broke through his brooding. His heartbeat was a little fast, and Matt recalled that he may have gotten a love tap to the face last night. Repeatedly. With a crowbar. Because some jackass had blared an airhorn in his face and he had been disoriented. It was distinctly Not His Fault for running around beating criminals up in the dead of night. Not at all. "What. Happened."

Yeah, he wasn't about to tell Foggy the truth. "Tripped." he said instead. Because that was believable. Great job, idiot.

"You _tripped._" Foggy did not sound like he believed him. Which was fair, since Matt had a habit of lying, and Foggy knew this. "What, straight into someone's fist? You look like hell."

A click-clack of heels and a scent of jasmine alerted him to Karen's approach. Her heart stuttered when she saw him, and he thought he really must have looked pretty bad if Karen was worried.

"Oh my god!" she gasped. "Matt! Are you okay? Did you get mugged?"

"He's fine," Foggy said, and _ouch_ there was venom in his voice. "He just _tripped_." yeah. There was no way that Foggy had bought his excuse.

"Do we have a case?" he interrupted, so that they wouldn't get too caught up in worrying about him. Well, too late for that, but at least he could try to redirect Foggy's attention and hope he forgot to ask what really happened. Because surprise crowbars to the face of a trained ninja was just straight up embarrassing, and he didn't need anyone who wasn't there to know. The guy who hit him wouldn't be talking anytime soon, anyway.

The diversion seemed to work, though Foggy kept looking his way, and Matt suspected that he was being glared at. He ignored it as Karen talked about the few cases that they had.

* * *

Danny clenched his teeth around a scream as electricity flowed through him. He could feel his core throbbing in time with the current, but he still couldn't quite reach it. The electricity stopped, and his core seemed to disappear with it. He collapsed against the table with a barely contained sob.

He could hear voices, but everything seemed to be underwater. A door opening, pen scratching against paper. Muted mumbling. The door again.

"Our portal appears to create this substance as a by-product."

His vision swam as the voices continued speaking about him. His throat burned where the collar touched. His head lolled to the side, and he watched the blurry people shapes bustle around as the door opened and closed again. Someone was suddenly in front of him, a needle held in his hand. It took until the needle was in his arm for his brain to identify who it was.

"Soap Man!" he exclaimed with a grin. They'd removed the ever present gag when he'd started choking on his tongue. "Hey, do you guys offer massages around here at all? Because boy are my muscles _sore!_" Soap Man hit him in the head as he withdrew the needle.

Danny felt annoyed with himself when he realized that he wasn't paying enough attention to see what was in the needle, but that question was answered when he felt his core surface. He reached for it at about the same time that the electricity came back. He screamed as he transformed, the feeling of ectoplasm and electricity coursing through him too much to remember that he was trying to not show how much everything hurt.

It was just like when he'd died. But he wasn't dead, was he? Of course he was dead, he's a ghost. Ghosts aren't alive, that would be stupid. But he was alive, wasn't he? He could still feel his heart beat beneath his core, of course he was alive. But if he was alive, then how was he a ghost? That didn't make any sense. But if he was a ghost, it would be a simple thing to go intangible and phase straight through the straps binding him. Wait. he was bound?

Phantom yanked at his arms, attempting to phase through the straps pinning him down. Excited chatter caught Danny's attention, and Phantom looked over. There were men and women in white lab coats excitedly writing things down on clipboards. White. Phantom _hated_ white. He snarled at them, and just as he was about to wail and blow their heads off, his core stuttered, and he was simply 'Danny' again. Had he ever been anyone else? He hadn't, had he? No, he was just Danny. Danny Fenton, and Danny Phantom, but no matter which he was still always _Danny_.

He went limp against the table, his vision faded around the edges, and let himself drift. Hands grabbed at him, and he let them. They dragged him down a hall, and it took Danny a moment to realise that it wasn't the usual hall. It was different. Brighter. They stopped at a door.

"Lucky you," one of the Lab Coats said. "Hydra's busy using your regular room for their own needs, so your accommodations have been updated. Enjoy your new room." the door opened, and they tossed Danny into the room.

He landed on the floor with a soft 'thwump'. The room was dim, but even in the half-light Danny could still see that the walls were that nausea inducing _white_ that he had become familiar with during his stay with the GIW. How long ago was that? Did it matter? _White. _Too much _white._

Danny curled up and wished he had died in the portal.


	5. Bonus Chapter

Jazz stared at the spot on the stairs that she had just watched Danny fall through with horror. Sam and Tucker had texted her a bit ago that they were on their way home with Danny, and she had been feeling so relieved that he was safe, but now… he was gone. Again.

Their mom burst out of the kitchen, massive ecto gun in hand, wearing a flowery apron over top of her HAZMAT suit. Her hood was down.

"Is everyone okay?" she shouted, scanning the room for ghosts. Jazz felt a little numb when she met her mom's eyes. "Where's Danny?"

"..." Jazz opened and closed her mouth for a moment, before coming to a decision. "... he just fell through a portal." She said quietly. Her mom's gun dropped until it was aimed at the floor. "I couldn't… I wasn't in time to pull him back."

"Oh, Jasmine, sweetheart," Mom dropped her gun as she gathered Jazz into her chest. "It's not your fault. You tried. We'll get him back from those nasty ghosts, just you wait and see!" Jazz nodded into her mom's chest, bringing her arms up to return the embrace.

"We'll have to tell Sam and Tucker." she said. Her mom hummed in response. "They're his best friends. They deserve to know." Maybe they could help find him. Maybe they could use the boo-merang. She was pretty sure that Sam still had the thing. They would do whatever they could to get Danny back, all of them.

She didn't know what she would do if they didn't succeed. She tried not to think about it.

* * *

Sam and Tucker both stared at Jazz in horror. "But we just got him back!" Tucker said, voice desperate and cracking. "He can't have just… What if it's the Guys in White? What if they figured out how to hack his signal?"

"Don't you still have access to their systems?" Sam asked. Tucker paused, then nodded.

"I do! I'll check right now!" Sam nodded, and Tucker pulled out his PDA and started tapping away. Sam turned to Jazz.

"In the meantime, I suppose you want the Boo-merang?" Sam said, and Jazz nodded.

"It's possible that he just fell into the Ghost Zone. Mom is setting up a search incase he's in there, but it would be a lot more effective with it."

"Of course it would. And if that doesn't pan out, then we make contact with Danny's supporters." Sam was starting to sound more confident, and Jazz relaxed a little, feeling put at ease now that they had a more solid plan. Tucker made a frustrated noise.

"He's not there." he said, when both girls turned to look at him.

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Jazz asked.

"Sure, except that we already know how to get through their systems, and if it was them then we could have had Danny back within the hour." Jazz frowned.

"What about Vlad? I wouldn't put it past him to try something like this." Jazz asked, but Sam shook her head.

"Vlad tries to do thing's subtly, but he always ends up projecting that he's planning something. He's not declared anything as Mayor yet, and that would likely be the first thing he'd do." Tucker nodded along as Sam spoke.

"Plus, he would be more careful about making sure no one noticed him taking Danny. And he hasn't really tried to kidnap him in a while." He added.

"Still," Jazz said slowly. "We can't count him out just yet. Someone should at least check to see if he's got him." Sam pursed her lips.

"Well, why don't you do that, and Tucker and I can use the Boo-merang to scout the Zone." Jazz nodded.

"That sounds reasonable. Don't get caught by mom, and be careful."

* * *

Sam stared at the Boo-merang in confusion as it's screen flashed a message, which read: "Ecto signature not located. Try again?" She'd thrown it several times, and the only result she'd gotten was that it would fly as far as she could throw, and then it would hover, and start flashing that damned message again.

"Do you think it's faulty?" Tucker asked, as he looked at it over her shoulder.

"I don't see how. Has it ever done this before?" Tucker shrugged, then pulled another piece of jerky from his backpack and shoved it in his mouth to chew. Sam wrinkled her nose at him. "Can you not do that right now? This is kind of important." she snapped. Tucker shrugged again, and kept chewing. Sam grit her teeth.

"Look, this clearly isn't working, we should try something else." Tucker said.

"Like what? This is usually our best option, what else are we supposed to do?" Sam let her frustration bleed into her voice. Danny was out there somewhere, who even knows where, alone and probably injured.

Sam knew Danny could take care of himself. After all, he was the one with the ghost powers, but she also knew how reckless he could be if no one was there to stop him. He did stupid things all the time. All teenage boys did, his were just even more stupid because he had powers.

"I was thinking that we visit Wulf, since he fell into a portal." Tucker said, interrupting Sams thoughts.

"Huh. That's actually a good idea. How do you propose we find Wulf though, since he is a fugitive, and all." Tucker frowned.

"I can't do all the thinking!" he protested. Sam snorted.

"You barely do any thinking anyway." she muttered under her breath, but Tucker still heard her anyway.

"Hey!" Sam ignored his protest.

"We'll start with the Far Frozen, then. Maybe they'll let us borrow the infi-map, despite what happened last time."

They continued bickering the entire way there.

* * *

Authors Note:

* * *

This Bonus Chapter is a gift for my favourite person in the entire world, my sister and live in beta reader! Happy Birthday, I love you so the most! (And now the whole world knows that!)

apologises for any inaccuracies or awkward phrasing, this chapter has not been Beta read by anyone before posting (that would defeat the point). Your regular chapter will be posted tomorrow, and there will be no more authors notes until this arc of the story is finished.


	6. Chapter 6

Peter crouched on a building opposite the shooting range. It'd been a week and he still couldn't stop thinking about it. There was just something off about the whole thing, but he couldn't figure out what. And it's not like he could ask Mr. Stark to investigate it with the evidence of 'it gives me the heebie jeebies'. He needed _something_. But no matter how long he watched the place, it was just a building.

"Peter," Karen, his AI, said. He tried to contain his flinch, having briefly forgotten that she was there. "Why are we here?"

"I don't know," he muttered back. "Something about this place just feels off, that's all." there was never any crime in this block, he'd noted earlier this week. That was suspicious, right? Maybe he should mention it.

"Do you want me to tell Mr. Stark that you wish to investigate this building?" Karen asked. Peter considered for a moment. He could investigate, but he would feel stupid if there was actually nothing about it _to_ investigate. Plus, he was bad at it.

"No thanks, Karen. There's not really anything suspicious enough to warrant an investigation. It's just a gut feeling."

"Alright, Peter." Peter took a deep breath and left the building. There was a scream that sounded like it was a few blocks away. He followed that, and tried to put the shooting range out of mind.

* * *

Blood dripped from the end of the katana held in Deadpool's clenched fist. Body's were laid out through the room, soaked in blood. There was only one man left. Bob, unfortunately enough, did _not_ know which Hydra branch Weapon X was working out of, and as a result Deadpool had had to systematically work his way through Hydra bases until he could find out what he wanted to know. So far, no one had told him anything.

This man, wearing a lab coat and cowering in the corner of the room that Deadpool had just cleared out, looked like he _did_ know something. The man whimpered as Deadpool leveled Bea at his throat. **{rip out his throat}** [_don't do that. He can't talk without a throat, and if he can't talk, he can't tell you anything. A little love poke in the stomach should do the trick_]

Deadpool giggled as Bea dropped from the man's throat to his stomach. He attempted to pull his knees up protectively, and Deadpool kicked him in the crotch. "Do you know what I want?" he asked to man. The man sobbed, and shook his head. "I want to know where Weapon X is working out of. I know Hydra's been funding them." his throat felt like gravel as he spoke.

The man sobbed again, and pressed his lips shut as he shook his head. [_it doesn't look like he wants to talk_] **{a little stabbing is good motivation for talking. We would know.}** Deadpool nodded, a grin spreading across his face. He leaned toward the man, and in doing so let Bea sink into his stomach. "Are you _sure_ you don't know anything?" Deadpool singsonged. The man screamed.

"I'll talk, I'll talk!" He shouted through sobs. **{Pussy.}** [_can dish it out, but can't take it. Pathetic._] Deadpool silently agreed with the voices. "They're working out of the New York outpost!" Deadpool shifted his katana, letting it slide through skin. The man bit back another scream.

"New York state, or city?" Deadpool asked.

"City!" the man gasped out. "They're working in the city! There's lots of mutants there!" Deadpool pulled Bea out of the man's stomach and wiped her off on a rag from one of his pouches before resheathing her. "Oh thank god!" the man sobbed. He clearly thought he was going to live, the idiot. Deadpool pulled out a gun and shot the man in the face.

**{what'd you do that for?}** "he already told me what I wanted to know!" Wade made his way back towards the door. [_no he didn't. All he said was that they're working for the NYC outpost._] "yeah? That's what I wanted." he kicked a head out of his way and shut the door behind him. [_do you even know where that is?_] he paused. "Shit! Fuck! Damn it all! Fuck, why didn't you assholes stop me?" **{oh, like we have any control over your actions. Moron.} **[_you're so stupid. Why are you even alive? Oh right! You can't die! Like the fucking failure that you are._] **{you're pathetic} **[_you should just kill yourself until you stay dead._]

Wade gripped his head and took a deep breath. "I'm not killing myself. I have shit to do. I'll just make Bob tell me where it is." [_fine. Admit failure. Not like you could find it yourself anyway._] "Fuck you! I could so!"

he kicked open the door to the outside, and the fresh air and birds chirping was such a contrast to the screams and bloody air of just a half hour ago that it was almost disorenting. **{I bet it'd take you **_**weeks**_ **to find that Hydra base on your own! Bet you couldn't even manage it without asking someone else.}** "Nuh uh!"**{yuh huh!}** [_god you two are dumb. I can't believe I'm stuck with you morons. I say you cave in a week and ask someone else._] "I'll prove you both wrong!"

* * *

Matt crouched on the edge of a building, listening to the city move around him. While it was true that NYC was never truly _asleep_, it was also true that everything was quieter at night. Easier to navigate. There had been several kidnappings in this particular neighborhood especially, so Matt had decided that he would spend as much time patrolling this area as possible, staying out of sight the entire time.

He was taking a break at this particular moment, but as it always seems to be, it's as soon as you take a break that something happens. A short shriek and a muffled struggle denoted the end of Matts break time.

Matt followed the sounds of the scuffled as he ran and parkoured a few buildings over, until he was directly over top of the sound of the fight. It was in an alley. _It's always the alleys_, he thought to himself.

"Fuck!" a man's voice exclaimed. "I hate the ones with super strength." Matt tilted his head.

"Yeah, they're the worst." a woman agreed. "At least we have him subdued now. Where'd you park the van?" Matt hated kidnappers.

"Uhh…" before the man could finish his response, Matt had parkoured his way to the ground. The only good thing about alleys is that their walls were the ideal distance for jumping down, he didn't even have to use the fire escape. "Oh shit!" the man exclaimed, right before Matt punched him in the side of the head. The woman, startled, pulled a gun.

Matt assumed it was a gun, anyway. The way she moved didn't suggest anything else, but the lack of gunpowder made him wonder if he guessed wrong. Matt dodged to the side when he heard the trigger click, and the soft 'thwump' of a dart gun followed. Matt broke the wrist of her gun hand, twisting it behind her, and slamming her into the wall when she dropped the gun.

"Why are you kidnapping mutants?" he asked her.

"Bite me." she gasped out. Her heart was rabbiting in her chest, so Matt knew that she was scared. Or maybe excited, but the way she was breathing told him scared was a more accurate guess. She smelled like sweat and fear, anyway. Matt twisted her wrist and she sobbed a little.

"Let's try that again," Matt made his voice as gravely and intimidating as possible. "Why are you kidnapping mutants?"

She was silent for a moment too long, so Matt squeezed her wrist. "Fuck! It's just a job man, what do you care? It's not like they're your kids."

"Where are you taking them?" Matt growled, ignoring her question. Fuck! They were just kids, weren't they? How had he not noticed before?

"It changes! There's an address on my phone, we were supposed to drop this load of merchandise off there by one! It was Mark's idea to grab another before drop off!" Matt bashed her head into the wall and she was out cold. Wouldn't be for long, but all Matt had to do was dig her phone out of her pocket. It was bulky in his hands, and felt like a flip phone, likely a burner. He pocketed it and dug out his own burner, then he called his police contact, and zip tied the criminals wrists together.

He left the finding of the van to the police, seeing as the kids were drugged and the cops were on their way, and Matt hated having to deal with children for too long. He liked kids, but it always threw him off when he had to hear them crying, and he never knew what to say to soothe them. No, better to leave that to the police. He had a lead to follow.


	7. Chapter 7

Danny was cold. And jittery, and tired, thirsty, _hungry_. They had been feeding him sporadically when he'd first come here, but about five lab sessions ago the Soap Man, Ajax, had said "Let's see how long he can go without eating." and that was that. Time was meaningless now, but from how hungry he was, Danny thought it might have been somewhere between two or three days.

He'd started feeling his core again the last time they'd electrocuted him, and it was a cold, angry pulse in his chest that seemed to wash the pain away. He felt numb, as well as cold. He thought the jitters might have been from the electricity. Or it was anxiety. After all, they didn't seem to have any set lab schedule, just 'hey, I've thought of another test for the ghost mutant, let's poke him with things'.

Danny wanted to sleep, but the cold, and the jitters, and the burning _hunger,_ made that nearly impossible. He couldn't sleep here, anyway. It was too white. He'd tried to break up the white before they took his food away, biting his fingers until they bled and painting the walls red, but they'd just laughed, and Ajax, Soap Man, had forced him into a straitjacket to keep him from hurting himself. Then he'd bit his lips till they bled and splattered the walls with bloody spit. He got a mouth guard locked onto his face for that one, and that's when Ajax had taken the 'privilege' of food from him.

Eventually, he drifted off to sleep. He just wanted the white to go away.

* * *

The cold embraced him, so safe, like a warm hug in a fudge scented kitchen. His mother's arms around him, so safe and protective. The love in her voice, the ferocity as she promised to protect him from ghosts when he woke up from a nightmare.

The white snow softly blanketing the landscape felt like coming home, like the protective familiarity of the farfrozen. It felt like sitting on the couch with his dad, watching him with his needle point, and listening to him ramble about ghosts.

It was like knocking on Jazzs' door in the middle of the night, the vanilla scent of her perfume cloying in his nose as she hugged him warmly, promised him a shoulder to cry on, safety, someone to talk to when everything became too much.

He woke up with his face wet, unable to wipe his tears because his arms were bound to his torso. The cold numbed him, and he just wanted to go home.

* * *

Danny wondered, had he stayed with the GIW long enough, would he have become as complacent? He recalled that they had kept him in their lab for the majority of his stay, but when they transferred him between his cell and the lab, he had struggled the entire time. Here, all the guards had to do was grab a hold of his arm and lead him down the hall, and he'd stumble along behind them, not even trying to escape.

Could he escape, if he just tried? He remembered that first day, when they had hit him in the head to keep him quiet. Could he have escaped then, if only he'd struggled more?

Danny tripped over his own feet, the hunger gnawing at his stomach making him dizzy. The guard grunted and another smacked him in the back of the head. He was so cold, so empty. The void inside of him where his core should be pulsed with icy cold.

Even now, as the straitjacket came off and they strapped him down to the table, he didn't struggle. The more he fought them, the worse they made it hurt. Danny felt a little like he was floating. Like when he was in ghost form, and it took more effort to stand on the ground than it did to float above it.

Ajax was grinning at him, and Danny shivered. That grin was never anything good. They started with the routine; inject him with ectoplasm, electrocute him to force a change, and then prodded him with various machines, the purpose of which was unclear to him. Then, Ajax lifted a knife into Dannys' line of sight. It glowed green, like ectoplasm.

"Our Hydra friends seem to think they've made a breakthrough," The man started, grin gleeful. Danny felt chills run down his spine, and he shivered. "Do you know what this is?"

Danny would have answered him, called him 'Soap Man' just to spite him, but they didn't remove his mouthguard for electrocution anymore. He didn't scream as much as when they started, there was no point. Danny felt cold.

"This, my young friend, is what Hydra calls 'ectoranium'. They seem to think that any cut made with this will actually last. Let's test it out for them." and with that, Ajax lowered the knife to Dannys' arm and made a shallow cut.

Pain, hot and sharp, cut through the cold numbing Dannys' body, and he screamed. Then he remembered that he didn't want to let them see how much it hurt, and he choked on the sound. It was too late, though, and Ajax was grinning maniacally as he wrote on a clipboard.

"I'm so glad that it works!" he exclaimed, watching as the cut continued to ooze green long after it was inflicted. "Oh, we're going to have so much fun together!"


	8. Chapter 8

Wade stood in front of a shooting range pretty much dead centre of NYC, grinning proudly behind his mask.

"Told you fuckers I could find it on my own!" people on the streets gave the crazy man decked out in red, loaded down with weapons and talking to himself a wide berth. Wade ignored their stares.

[_Bravo. You possess a skill that everyone in your line of work has. Congratulations, you've done the bare minimum._] Wade grinned wider. "Yeah, but I did it on my own! No sources, no asking for help! Just me." **{It took you over a week.} **Wades smile faltered. "Well. um." Wade frowned for a moment, before his grin returned. "But you said that I would take _weeks_, and I did it faster than that! _And_" he continued. "I didn't give up in a week either! So I win."

Wade skipped up to the door of the shooting range with a wide grin. "Let's do this."

Deadpool kicked the door in, simultaneously unholstering a pistol and aiming it at the first sign of movement. The receptionist shrieked as she dove underneath the counter, cowering in fear. Deadpool ignored her, since she worked for the front of the business, and probably had no idea that her bosses were Hydra. Probably. **{shoot her anyway}**

There's a door behind the counter that proudly proclaims 'Personnel Only', and Deadpool vaults the counter and makes for it. He glances at the lady as he goes past, and notices that she's hit the panic button. [_you_ _should have shot her when you got in here. We don't need anymore attention._] what's done is done, though, and Deadpool only shoots her in the shoulder before he kicks down the personnel door.

There's a short hallway, two doors on either side, and a staircase leading up. Three of the doors are normal, and the last one has a keypad. He kicks it, but the door doesn't cave. [_it's reinforced, you moron. What, you think they want just anyone wandering into their super secret facility?_] "Well, we're not just anyone, are we?" **{we're **_**special**_**}**

Deadpool shoots the handle, and the bullet ricochets off it and hits him in the shoulder. "Fuck!" [_nice going, moron. I said the door is REINFORCED_] "I didn't think that meant _bullet proof_" [_this is Hydra we're dealing with, of course it's bulletproof._] **{*gasp* **_**EXPLOSIONS!**_**}** "Ah, Fuck! Warn a guy if you're going to scream!"

Deadpool pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, dropped the grenade, and ducked into one of the other rooms in the hall. Predictably, it was unlocked. The _boom_ from the grenade knocked the door off its hinges and threw Wade halfway across the room. He stumbled back to his feet awkwardly, then rolled his mask up to spit out a glob of blood. The ringing in his ears was gone almost before it had even started, so he pulled the mask back down and walked back into the hall. It was on fire.

[_what the fuck was that?_] "our way in!" [_at what point was it a good idea to BLOW UP THE HALLWAY?! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED?_] **{I thought it was a spectacular idea. And look, it worked!}** [_AAARGH!_] and it _had_ worked. The door was still intact, technically even still in its frame, but it was also lying on the floor just on the other side of the doorway. Deadpool stepped through the hole. "You two aren't exactly being helpful right now, ya know? The screaming is _preeety_ distracting." [_I hate you two so, so much._] "feeling's mutual, buddy. Now shut up."

On the other side of the door was a seemingly normal office, but Deadpool knew better. He was smarter than that. Sometimes. There was a bookshelf on the far wall, and the office was shorter than the one he had taken cover in by _just that much_, that it was suspicious. Deadpool threw another grenade, then used the door as a shield. He was still thrown into the wall - damn, he needed to get a few less powerful explosives - but at least he wasn't burnt to a crisp, or on fire, like the rest of the room was.

As he had expected, there was a staircase behind the bookshelves. He stepped up to the top of them, and peered down. At the bottom he could faintly see red lights flashing, and the sound of a warning alarm blaring faintly drifted up the stairs. Damn, that was some good soundproofing. Deadpool started down the stairs. [_why are you like this?_] "Dunno. Torture, probably." **{Daddy issues}** Deadpool snorted a laugh. "Yeah, that too."

He was met with a firing squad at the bottom of the stairs. As soon as he reached them, they opened fire. "Aw, is this all for me?" Deadpool asked, returning fire and completely ignoring the burning pain of the gunshot wounds. It's not like it mattered, they wouldn't be there for long, and he so adored the look of terror on their faces when they realised that he was unkillable. Someone at the back shouted something into a radio, inaudible over the sound of gunfire, and Deadpool shot him in the head. His body slumped to the floor like a ragdoll, and Deadpool laughed.

The last man dropped to the ground, and Deadpool mimed blowing smoke from his guns before he reloaded and holstered them. He surveyed his work for a brief moment, then turned to go further into the facility. That was when it happened. He felt the ground shake before he heard it, a tortured scream that made tears spring to his eyes, and his eardrums burst. It was the sound of lost souls, the last desperate cries of a dying creature. His heart pounded so hard in his chest that he felt like it was going to burst. His brain felt like mush, and he dropped to his knees as the world spun around him. Some of the lights in the ceiling exploded, and then it was over, so quickly that Wade thought he might have imagined it.

[**{**_**what was THAT?**_**}**] but he couldn't have imagined it. They would have known if he did. Wades ears popped.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out."


	9. Chapter 9

Peter was practicing backflips on top of a building, listening for anything that might need his attention. He was also doing his best to _not _hover around the shooting range, because there wasn't anything suspicious about it, and he needed to leave well enough alone. He wasn't supposed to do any investigating anyway. It was probably nothing.

"Peter," Karen said. He landed on his feet, arms spread, and wobbled for a moment.

"Yeah, Karen?"

"My scanners have reported a disturbance at the shooting range." Peter froze at Karens words.

"What... kind of disturbance?"

"A silent alarm has been tripped, and calls have been made to 911 reporting hearing gunfire and explosions. Would you like me to plot a route?" Peter was launching himself off the building before Karen had even finished speaking.

"Yes please, Karen." Peter adjusted his trajectory as Karen let a map pop up in the corner of his sight, and he followed that as fast as he could to the shooting range. He was only three blocks out when he heard it.

He'd just released his web, and was about to shoot a new one when the most tortured scream he'd ever heard pierced the air. His vision blurred and he flailed in the air for a moment, trying to regain his equilibrium. His fingers caught the edge of a building, and he hauled himself up and sat for a moment, just breathing.

"Karen?"

"Yes, Peter?"

"Did that scream come from the shooting range?" Karen was silent for a moment.

"As far as I can tell, that would be an accurate estimate." Peter took a deep breath. "Would you like me to alert Mr. Stark?"

"No thanks, Karen. I think I've got this." He launched himself off the building, and continued on towards the shooting range. There was _definitely_ something iffy about the place, and he'd be damned if he didn't get to figure out what it was.

* * *

Matts week had been terrible. Beyond the lack of business at Nelson and Murdock, he'd been trying to chase down the kidnappers and keep Foggy in the dark about his night time activities.

Which had been hard when he'd had to ask the man to read the address on the kidnappers burner phone to him, and then been unable to explain where he'd gotten the phone in the first place, and why it was so important that Foggy read the text for him. He'd ended up having Karen read it, but then it was a full day later and the warehouse was already empty, and he was back to where he'd started. Mostly.

He'd been there just as a man had entered, and followed his movements as he grabbed a hat that had been left in one of the offices. Then, Matt had cornered him and demanded to be told where they'd moved their operations to. Unfortunately, he couldn't hand the man off to the police without some sort of evidence, and he'd had to let him go.

Then came jumping through hoops to find the leader of the operation and uncover who they were working for. They'd had no definitive answer for him, but they did give him a location. The upside was that he'd busted the entire trafficking ring in the process, because they'd still had the 'merchandise' in the warehouse when he'd called the cops on them.

After that, they'd had a sudden rush of cases from people being falsely accused of breaking and entering, or otherwise stealing from the companies that they worked for, and Matt had to put the kidnapping out of mind for a few days, because Foggy and Karen refused to be stuck with the workload.

All in all, the only satisfying thing that week had been the busting of the massive trafficking ring, and the freeing of approximately half of the kidnapped people from the last month.

Right now, he was finally on his way to check out the address that he'd been given, ostensibly that of a nondescript shooting range. It was late afternoon, or early evening, but he'd put this off for long enough and was willing to risk being seen in daylight if it meant that he could save the lives of a few more kidnapped people.

He would have ridden the subway, as that would have been faster, but attracting attention while out in his Daredevil costume would have just been asking for trouble. As such he'd taken the rooftop route, and had to pause to take a breath, because despite his enhanced senses, he was still just a man. He extended his hearing, just listening to the city as he breathed, and contemplated his life.

A loud _boom_ interrupted his thoughts, and he estimated its location to be approximately his current destination. Well, break time was over.

"Dear Lord, give me strength." he murmured as he forced himself back to his feet and took off in the direction of the explosion. Almost as soon as he'd left the rooftop, another explosion sounded.

He was almost to the shooting range before he heard sirens. He hated sirens. They were always so disorienting, but at least that meant that he'd at least have some back up. He stopped on a building across the street from the shooting range for a moment, just to listen.

Faint gunfire, screams, someone shouting. He focused on that last, as it seemed the most useful.

"... need backup! Deadpool…" the man cut off with a wet gasp, and Matt figured he'd probably been shot. But that answered one question and raised another. The explosions were likely caused by Deadpool, but then, what was _he_ here for?

Matt prepared to climb down the building, ready to face whatever lay ahead, when an earth shattering _wail_ pierced the air, so loud that the ground almost shook from the force of it. Matt stumbled back and collapsed to his knees, tears springing to his eye's at the sheer _volume_ of it. He clapped his hands over his ears, although that didn't do much. It was probably over far sooner than it felt, but Matt stayed crouched on that building for almost five minutes before his ears stopped ringing enough for him to reorient himself.

Whatever was going on in that building, it was _big_. Bigger than Matt himself could likely handle, though he would certainly try. And if Deadpool was in there, and if the Spider kid watching him followed, they could probably handle it together. They'd have to.


	10. Chapter 10

Danny bit back another scream as Ajax pressed the 'ectoranium' knife into the flesh of his ribs and dragged it as slowly as seemed possible. Ajax may have _called_ the knife ectoranium, but there was no way in all the ancients that it was true ectoranium.

Capable of leaving a mark, yes, but ectoranium? No. true ectoranium didn't _burn_ like this did. Ectoplasm was inherently cold. It was one of the most notable traits about ghosts, it's why rooms get colder when there was a ghost in them. Ghostly auras exuded ectoplasm, and with the exception of a very few ghosts, that meant _cold._

Besides, when the GIW had cut into him with ectoranium it had been cold. Painfully cold, so cold that it almost burned, but cold 'ectoranium' was hot. Unbearably so. So hot it was almost cold. His guess was proven right when he listened to Ajax babble.

For someone who despised his test subjects talking, the man sure did talk a lot himself. He was kind of like Vlad that way. Perhaps Danny talking reminded the man of Danny's humanity, or maybe he just considered his test subjects as 'lesser' and therefore unworthy to speak to him. Or maybe he just liked the sound of his own voice. The reasons weren't important, his words were.

"You know, I'm so glad that this works. When Hydra first proposed fusing ectoplasm with metal, it didn't seem to work. But vibranium, oh, that was genius."

Vibranium? Danny had never heard of it, it kind of sounded like the sort of thing you'd call a magic metal in a comic book, to explain away why it worked differently than metal was supposed to. But then, Danny had already concluded that this was a different dimension, and that probably wasn't the only difference.

At some point after the first cut had been made, they had hooked him up to an I.V drip of ectoplasm to keep him in ghost form, and now Ajax reached for his face and unbuckled the gag. "This should hurt quite a bit, and we don't want you choking on your tongue again, do we?"

"Bite me, Soap Man." Danny bit out as soon as the gag left his mouth. Ajax frowned, then shoved the gag back into his mouth, though he left it unbuckled.

"On second thought, I'll just leave this here."

Danny grunted angrily as Ajax picked the knife up again. The man grinned as he set the knife against the edge of the scar on Dannys chest. Just as the knife pressed into his flesh, the lights went red and alarms, reminiscent of those that had gone off when Danny had first come here, blared through the room.

Ajax startled, and the knife skittered across Dannys chest, leaving a jagged green line in its wake. "Fuck!" Ajax swore, pulling the knife away. He ignored Dannys muffled scream and turned to someone else in the room. "Go figure out what's happening." he demanded, tapping something into a computer and cutting off the alarms and flashing lights in the room. Danny could tell that it was only in this room, because he could still hear the alarms muffled blaring from behind the door.

"Yes, sir," a woman replied. The door opened, and Danny saw a moment of flashing lights along with the sound of alarms before it closed behind her.

Ajax was back over him with the knife a moment later. "Now, where were we?" just as the knife touched Dannys chest, an explosion rocked the building. Ajax pulled back with another muffled swear. A muscle twitched in his jaw, and he seemed to steady himself as he dug the knife into Dannys chest and traced the old, half healed, vivisection scar. Danny screamed and pulled at the straps that bound him to the table. Another explosion rocked the building, and Ajax ignored it.

Ajax was so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't even seem to notice how hard Danny was struggling. He just silently peeled the skin back and pinned it in place. Danny collapsed motionless against the table as Ajax set his knife aside.

"Interesting," Ajax muttered, leaning over Danny's open chest. "You don't appear to have any organs. How _curious_. Is this an effect of your current form, or do you never have any? I'm sure you do, I thought I saw some last time we cut you open. How very… unique." Danny could feel tears running into his hairline as he cried silently. "Oh! What's this?" Ajax reached a cautious hand into Danny chest, and his fingers brushed against something. Danny went rigid for a moment as burning, searing _pain __**pain PAIN!**_ rang through his head. And then, his jaw dropped open, and he _screamed_.

All the pain that he felt seemed to bleed into his scream, and beyond the pain he was faintly aware of the lights in the room all shattering simultaneously, he could just about hear, on the edges of his consciousness, the sound of other people screaming with him… and then the world went dark for a moment.

The room was still dark when Danny floated back to awareness, and he could feel a weight slumped down across his legs. His throat burned, and he could feel scraps of plastic sitting heavy on his tongue. He turned his head and spit, and the remaining pieces of his gag clattered to the table and floor wetly. His chest was still open to the air, but he was back in human form. He knew, because he couldn't see anything in the dark. He shifted, and let out a sob as pain ripped through him again. If anyone had asked him to describe what it felt like to have your organs exposed to the air, he didn't know if he could ever even _begin_ to describe it, beyond a feeling of something being indescribably _wrong_. He could feel warm and wet gathering in a pool beneath him, and he let himself drift, secure in the knowledge that this would be the place of his final death.

He couldn't tell how long he had drifted, maybe a minute, maybe an hour, but he came abruptly back to himself when he heard the door open. He tilted his head towards it, and could just barely make out the silhouette of a tall man in the doorway, armed to the teeth and backlit by flickering red light.

"What the fuck."


	11. Chapter 11

Wade was floored. Flabbergasted. Addled. Agape. Aghast. Agog. Appalled. Astonished. Astounded. Baffled. Befuddled. Bowled over. Dazed. Disconcerted. Dumbfounded. Dumbstruck. **{Dumb in general.} **Flipped out. Floored. Flustered. In a dither. Muddled. Mystified. Perplexed. Puzzled. Rattled. Reeling. Shocked. Shook up. Speechless. Staggered. Startled. Stumped. Stupefied. Surprised. Taken aback. Thrown. Thunderstruck. Uncertain. Unglued. Stunned. Horrified. Shocked. Bewildered. Frazzled. [_frazzled?_] **{I think it counts.}**[_It definitely doesn't._] there weren't enough synonyms in any thesaurus to describe how utterly unexpected this was. After trotting down hall after hall of people writhing on the floor, or screaming about how they couldn't hear anything, here this kid was, strapped to a table, in the dark, and turning his head as soon as the door opened. **{can he hear us?}**[_bad phrasing. We're incorporeal voices in the idiots head. But I do think the kid can still hear._]

"Are you two just going to ignore the fucking _blood soaked room_, or do I have to be the one to point that out?" Wade shouted. The kid flinched, proving that he could, indeed, hear. **{do you think he might be the source of the noise?}** [_he's laying in a puddle of blood. Should we do something?_] Wade took a moment to look, and then he noticed that the kid had a hole in his chest. "What the fuck?" he said again, for effect. Then: "Oh, Fuck! He's going to bleed out! What do I do? I'm not prepared for this! I don't know how to be a dad!" [_you're not his dad. Just… I don't know, stitch him back together, maybe?_]

Wade lunged into motion, tearing through the room looking for medical supplies, bandages, something, _anything_, that he could use to put the kid back together. By the time he found something the kids eyes had fluttered shut, and his breathing had turned even more shallow. Wade haphazardly shoved the mush corpse off of the kids legs, and then took a moment to just _look_, and register what was in front of his eyes.

There was green as well as red mixing together on the table under him about as well as oil and water. Which is to say, not at all, and two flaps of skin pinned to either side of the kids chest, like some sort of science experiment. Wade carefully plucked the pins out, and then ripped off his gloves and tossed them into the room behind him. "Do I know how to do stitches?" he asked. [_Maybe? Sometimes it seems like you can do whatever is convenient for the plot of the story, so you might as well try._ _If he's supposed to live, then he probably will._] well, the voices were in agreement, so Wade carefully held the skin together with one hand and stitched it in place with the other. The end result was ugly and jagged, but the kid was still breathing, and he didn't look like he was going to bleed out anymore, so he considered it a success. **{I guess he's important to the story!}**

Wade had just pulled the kid into a sitting position against his chest to wrap the bandage he'd found around him when the door burst open again. Wade looked up to see Daredevil standing in the doorway, frozen, before getting back to the task at hand. He'd finished wrapping the kid in bandages when another, unfamiliar, voice spoke up from the doorway.

"Oh my god, what is that _smell._" he looked up again, and his non existent eyebrows shot up his forehead. He wasn't aware that this universe had a Spider-Man yet. From his voice, and stature, he must be pretty young. Daredevil had a hand over the kids eyes and was backing him out of the room.

"People shit when they die, so that's probably what you're smelling." Wade answered the kids question, forcing cheerfulness into his voice.

"Deadpool!" Daredevil snapped at him.

"What? I'm just answering the kids question!"

"I'm not a kid!" Spider-mans voice broke in the middle of the statement. "Wait… are there dead people in that room?"

"Yes." Wade said, just as Daredevil said

"Don't worry about it." Daredevil paused. "Deadpool!" he shouted. "Stop trying to traumatize him!"

"I'm just being honest!" Spider-man peeled Daredevils hand away from his face and looked into the room before anyone, Daredevil, could stop him. Wade didn't even try to stop the kid. "I thought honesty was the best policy." **{it is the best policy!}** [_you're a cold blooded killer._] Spider-Kid had gone rigid. "Thank you!" [_that wasn't a compliment. I'm trying to say that honesty doesn't really out weight the_ murder] Spider-Kid rapidly backed out of the room, beyond where Wade could see, followed shortly by the sound of someone vomiting.

"Stop talking to yourself!" Daredevil snapped.

"I'm not! I'm talking to the voices! You know this!" The kid, the one Wade still had cradled to his chest, flailed, and Daredevil went still. Wade let the kid push himself away from his chest, and watched in silence as he turned his head and gagged.

"Is… that kid still alive?" Daredevil asked.

"I think so. Why?" the Kid smacked at Wades chest when he said that, and he glanced down at him.

"I just… didn't hear a heartbeat. Maybe my hearings not all back yet?" Wade ignored Daredevil in favor of watching the kid struggle to speak.

"Don't strain yourself, kid." he said to him after a moment, and the kids mouth snapped shut. "Was that scream you?" the kid stared for a moment, before nodding slowly.

"Deadpool?" Daredevil asked. Wade ignored him.

"You might have hurt something, then. Just rest, you're safe now." the kid stared for another moment, before letting out a sigh and leaning back against Wades chest.

"Are you ignoring me?"

"No, I was talking to the kid. We should probably leave." Daredevil nodded, and Wade scooped the kid up into his arms. The kid wiggled around for a moment, then let out a whine that was almost entirely air as he settled back against Wades chest. Wade glanced down again, and the kid blinked sleepily at him before his eyes closed.

Out in the hallway, Spider-Kid was leaning against the wall and breathing heavily. Wade ignored the smell of vomit and stepped daintily around the discoloured spot on the floor. Daredevil followed him.

"Cops are on their way." Daredevil said, his tone almost conversational, but Wade knew that it was half a warning.

"There's a staircase upstairs, should lead to the roof." he replied.

"Upstairs is kind of on fire." Spider-kid interrupted. Wade had almost forgotten he was there, and he glanced at the kid when he spoke. He looked a bit shaky, but overall okay.

[_really shouldn't have told the kid that there were dead people._] "What was I supposed to do, lie to him?" Wade hissed at the voice. **{Maybe that would have been the better choice, but you're a horrible person anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.}**

"That is an excellent point, Spider-Kid. Why _is_ upstairs on fire?" Daredevil asked.

"Not a kid!"

"Grenades." Wade and Spider-Kid spoke at the same time. The kid in his arms huffed out air, and Wade wondered if he was amused, or annoyed. Wade chose amused.

"Grena-?! Deadpool!" Daredevil sounded incredulous. "Grenades? Really?"

"How else was I supposed to get down here? The door was reinforced!" they came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, and Wade stared up at the flames at the top of them. The stairs themselves were metal, which was good because it meant the fire hadn't spread, but bad because even the bottom most step was hot to the touch. "Ah. well, that might be a bit of a problem."

[_this is your own fault. You know that, right?_] "Hey! Stop ignoring me! What's going on? Is that kid wearing a collar?" they continued to ignore the Spider-Kid.

"You think?" Daredevil sounded even more angry now.

"Well, how'd you get down here, then?!" Wade snapped back.

"My suit's flame retardant, and I have almost no self preservation instinct. Don't change the subject. Grenades? Really?"

"I thought it was a good idea at the time!" [_I told you it wasn't. Why don't you ever listen to me?_] **{I still think it was a brilliant idea.}**

"Hey! Heeeey!" Spider-Kid huffed angrily. "Should someone take the collar off that kid?"

"It _clearly_ wasn't! It was so obviously a _bad idea_ that even a blind person could have seen how bad the idea was!" Daredevil snapped back.

"Ha! Blind!" Wade laughed. Spider-kid finally seemed to realise that they were ignoring him.

"It's not funny!" Daredevil snapped.

Spider-Kid reached for the collar on the kids neck.

"You're the one who said it, not me!" Wade finally noticed Spider-Kid reaching for the collar. "Woah! Don't touch that yet!" Wade pulled away as he spoke, but it was too late. Spider-Man had already snapped the collar off.

The kid in Deadpool's arms breathed in sharply as the collar came off, and all eyes snapped to him. Deadpool stared as the kid opened his bright green glowing eyes. Then the eyes bled a brilliant icy blue and the temperature around them started to drop rapidly. Wade closed his eyes tightly as white light filled the room.

He reopened his eyes when the kid went limp in his arms. Daredevil was supporting a collapsed Spider-Man, and there was frost on some of the walls. And it was dark. Wade looked at the top of the stairs. **{hey! The fires out!}**

"The fires out." he repeated numbly. Daredevil nodded, and gathered Spider-Man into his own arms. "Guess that's solved."


	12. Chapter 12

Authors note

* * *

I'm going camping this weekend, so here's an early chapter!

* * *

Matt was firmly convinced that Wade Winston Wilson, Alias Deadpool, could give anyone a headache given enough time spent with the man. He was a self proclaimed "Merc With a Mouth", and he lived up to that name. Which is to say, the man never _shut up_. Which was interesting, because he was a famous mercenary. Or 'infamous' as he'd corrected. Matts headache was steadily building into a migraine.

They'd somehow managed to evade the NYPD, which Matt would have been more impressed with, if he hadn't been distracted trying to figure out exactly how bad off the child in Deadpool's arms was. He'd suggested a hospital, but that idea had been shut down. He'd then tried to convince Deadpool that the kid needed _some_ kind of medical attention, and had _somehow_ been talked into following the man to his warehouse.

"Safe House." Deadpool insisted.

Matt thought that the mans borderline telepathic tendencies were infuriating. If it weren't for the promised safety for the children they had with them, he would never follow the man. Spider-Man, or 'Peter' as his suit had called him, was still passed out in Matts arms. His heartbeat was unnaturally slow, but that wasn't unusual for hypothermia.

What was unusual was how slow the other kid's heart beat was. If Matt hadn't been listening for it, he wouldn't have even known that it was still beating. His breathing was equally shallow and slow. If Deadpool wasn't being so possessive of the child, and if Matt hadn't already been carrying Peter, he would have insisted that the child be handed over so that Matt could get him some proper medical attention. For heaven's sake! If Matts senses weren't so enhanced, he'd have assumed the child to be dead!

"Here we are!" The change in the tone of Deadpools rapid fire word vomit caught Matts attention. "Well, su casa es mi casa!" Matt's nose wrinkled.

"That's backwards."

"Is it? Well, I've heard it both ways." the door made an absolutely horrendous _screech._ Matt cringed. "Hey, have you ever seen Psych? Man that was a good show. I wonder if I have the DVDs in this safehouse?"

"Do you ever oil your door hinges?" Matt asked. Deadpool's head tilted.

"I don't think so. I oil my guns. You know, proper care of weapons is super important. I once had a guy try to kill me with a rusty machete. You ever been stabbed with a rusty machete? That shit hurts, man." Matt did his best to tune Deadpool out again.

The smell of gunpowder and blood was thick in the air, and Matt followed a babbling Deadpool as he zigzaged his way across the large, open space. Deadpool paused next to what Matt assumed to be a couch.

"Sit anywhere you want." he said, before looping around and settling onto something large and fabric and filled with tiny beads. Oh, a bean bag chair. Of course. Matt set Peter on the side of the couch and leaned him against the arm before turning to Deadpool, who still hadn't stopped talking.

"Do you have blankets? Or a space heater?" Matt interrupted halfway through Deadpools spiel on Micheal Myers, and what a horrible serial killer he would be if he were real. By which Matt means Deadpool thinks the man is bad at killing. Deadpool pauses for less than a minute.

"Space heater, no. I think the blankets are in the hall closet. Oh, wait, no. this is a warehouse. Um. check under the couch?" Deadpool then started talking about all the things he's found under the couch. Matt resists the urge to take off the mask and pull his hair out. There are, however, two thin blankets under the couch. It's better than nothing.

After Matt finished wrapping Peter in the blankets, he turned back to face Deadpool. Though he couldn't see it, he knew the man was watching him. He still hadn't stopped talking, though Matt hadn't expected him to.

"I need to examine the kid." He stated bluntly. Deadpool went silent for a long moment. It was almost frightening.

"No." his voice was hard and unforgiving, and he only said that one word. Matt was shocked.

"Deadpool…" He started, hoping his tone was soothing.

"No." the man repeated. Matt grit his teeth.

"Deadpool! I can barely hear his heartbeat! He sounds like he's on the brink of death!" He snapped.

"You can't touch him! What if you hurt him more?!" Deadpool was starting to sound hysterical.

"I'm not going to hurt him!" Matt exclaimed, incredulous. "I just want to make sure he's okay!"

"He's fine! Back off!" Matt was about to respond, but a faint sound behind him caught his attention.

"_Activating heater."_ A muffled, electronic voice announced. Ah, Peters spider suit was back online. Matt refocused on Deadpool, who was muttering to himself.

"Can't touch him. Probably thinks he can 'examine' the kid the same way those scientists did." a pause. "Of course he does. Who says 'examine' when they're talking about people? He's gonna hurt him." of course it was Matts own poor choice of words that set Deadpool off.

"Medical professionals examine people, Deadpool." He interrupted.

"Never met one that wasn't dirty. Back off, med boy." Deadpool's body heat had curled protectively around the comparatively cooler one of the child.

"I just want to see if he's alright." Matt tried to sooth. Deadpool snorted.

"Ha! 'See' he says. Fucker's blind, can't see shit." Deadpool went back to his muttered conversation with himself, and Matt sighed. If he thought he could do it without serious bodily harm he would have tried to check on the child anyway, but as it was, Deadpool was on edge, and likely to attack anyone or anything he thought might be a threat.

Matt flopped down on the couch next to Peter and sighed again. His head hurt. He'd started to fuss with the blankets wrapped around Peter while he tried to figure out what to do about the other kid, when he heard a familiar sound.

"What asshole?" Deadpool asked, seemingly to noone, as Matt swiveled his head to face the direction of the noise. "Oh, _that_ asshole." Deadpool said as something glass on the ceiling shattered, and the sound of the Ironman suit echoed around the enclosed space.

Matt wished he'd stayed home.


	13. Chapter 13

The dinging was starting to become distracting, but Tony did his best to tune it out so he could focus on repairing the damage to his Iron Man suit. True, this one wasn't in current use, but that was no reason to let it fall into disrepair. You never know when you might need it.

Despite Tony's conviction to ignore the dinging, it was still really distracting. Eventually Tony set his screwdriver down and pushed his chair away from the table.

"Friday," The music cut off when he spoke.

"Yes, boss?" she responded.

"What's dinging? I thought I said that I didn't want to be disturbed while I was in the lab today!" Tony threw his hands in the air as he spoke.

"I apologize, boss, but you've set the Spider-Suit to be able to send distress messages even when you're in 'do not disturb.'" Tony went pale.

"What distress message, and why wasn't it read immediately?!"

"Approximately thirty minutes ago there was a shootout at a building which Karen had marked as suspicious. However, since she did not list a reason, this was filed as routine. Ten minutes ago the Spider-Suit went offline. The reboot sequence has just finished. I did not read this to you because you were absorbed in your work, and I wasn't sure if I could get you attention."

"Okay, so what's the distress signal you mentioned?" Tony said, feeling shaky.

"Oh, Karen activated the emergency retrieval protocol, but Peter doesn't appear to be in immediate danger." At Friday's words, Tony stood up and went to put on his Iron Man suit.

"Friday, next time there's a distress signal from the Spider-Suit, just tell me. None of this 'I wasn't sure i could get your attention' bullshit."

Tony was out the door before Friday could finish her acknowledgement. Not even five minutes later Iron Man was hovering above an unassuming warehouse.

"Friday, show me heat signatures." immediately his visor lit up. There were four bodies inside the building in pairs of two, sitting across from one another. "Which one is Peter?" Friday changed the colour of one of the bodies. "I'm going in."

Tony hovered above a skylight, and then cut the thrusters so that he could drop through the ceiling. Glass shattered everywhere as he fell through the ceiling, and he reactivated the thrusters before he could hit the floor, instead he hovered about in the middle of the room.

The inside of the warehouse was a wreck. There were crates full of guns and other weapons piled in every corner, and the floor was carpeted in a mix of pizza boxes, taco wrappers, and chinese takeout boxes. Not all of which were empty.

Dead center of the room was a couch, and directly in front of that was a crate that someone had clearly been using as a coffee table. Across from both was a beanbag chair, next to which was a mini fridge, and on the other side a TV with every gaming console possible tangled next to it.

On the couch was the Devil of Hells Kitchen, and a bundle of blankets wrapped around Peter. On the bean bag chair was a massive man decked out in weapons, dressed head to toe in red and black, and cradling a child to his chest. Tony had barely opened his mouth to speak when the child suddenly flung himself out of the mans arms, transformed in a bright flash of light, and threw a bright green orb straight into Tonys chest.

The Iron Man suit shorted out and Tony hit the floor with a deafening _clatter-bang._

* * *

Danny was laying on the couch with his dad and watching movies. While he was never happy to be sick, he couldn't deny that he enjoyed cuddling with his dad and listening to the rumble of his chest as he spoke while fingers carded gently through his hair. He turned his face to snuggle deeper with his dad, and inhale the comforting scent, then froze.

His dad was supposed to smell like fudge, and warmth, and the strangely cold-electric smell of ectoplasm. What he smelled instead was sulfurous, and blood, and something spicy that tickled his nose. He rubbed his face against the familiar spandex of his dads jumpsuit, and relaxed again. He smelt a bit odd, but that was okay. He was still his dad.

The front window shattered, and Skulker was suddenly in the living room. Danny froze in fear. His ghost sense hadn't even gone off! How had Skulker evaded it? Danny struggled to stand against his fathers restraining grip for a moment, before remembering he could just phase through it. As he stood, he transformed, briefly forgetting that his father was watching. Skulker turned to face him, and Danny threw an ectoblast as quickly as he could, hoping to get the upper hand in their fight.

The deafening _clatter_ of something metal and _tangible_ hitting the floor snapped Danny into full consciousness. Danny gaped. There was a metal man laying on the floor, yes, but it wasn't Skulker by a long shot. This man, or robot, or _thing_, was bright red and gold, and far more human shaped than Skulker had ever been.

"What the _fuck!_" the metal man screamed, before devolving into incomprehensible, furious, gibberish.

Someone giggled behind him, and Danny turned. Another man, larger than the first, and dressed head to toe in a red and black jumpsuit, was curled up on a bean bag chair and holding his stomach as he giggled. Someone else sighed, and Danny turned again. Yet another man dressed head to toe in red sat on a couch, head in his hands. Next to that man was what Danny assumed to be a pile of blankets, before it moved and yet _another_ red dressed man turned his masked face in Danny's direction.

Danny swiveled back to face the giggling man, about to ask what was going on, when exhaustion rushed through him, and he fell out of the air. The giggling man caught him just before he transformed back to human, and pain exploded out from his chest. Danny whined, unable to properly vocalise his pain. The man shushed him as he tried to curl around his chest.

"Hey, hey, no. Don't do that. You're okay, just focus on breathing."

"What the fuck, Deadpool?" Red man number three, the one on the couch, asked. "Just. What."

"What?" the giggling man - Deadpool? - asked. "What's got your panties in a bunch now?"

"The kid just fucking disappeared and you're asking _me_ what I'm _upset_ about?" The man snapped back.

"Would someone explain what the hell is going on?" the Metal man yelled angrily.

"Well, you see Iron pants…" Deadpool began.

"Don't listen to him, he doesn't know what's happening either." the Red man interrupted.

_Well someone has to know what's going on, because I sure as hell don't._ Danny tried to say. Tried, because the moment he tried to speak, his throat burned like he'd swallowed razor blades. He closed his mouth without speaking.

"I know more than you do!" Deadpool retorted, half sing-songing.

"Someone start talking before I have you all arrested!" Iron Pants snapped. Could he even do that? Who were these people?

"How about we start with introductions?" the red masked blanket man offered. Or kid, judging by his voice.

"Excellent suggestion, my young arachnid friend!" Deadpool said. "My name is Wade Winston Wilson, but I'm better known as Deadpool, or the Merc With a Mouth. Now you go."

"Uhh…" The blanket man sounded unsure.

"I'm Daredevil. Or the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Call me whichever you want, I don't really care." the Red man offered.

"I'm Spider-Man!" Blanket man finally said.

Iron Pants did not introduce himself, although Deadpool and Daredevil had turned to him expectantly. At some point Deadpool had picked Danny up without him noticing. Danny wiggled in his arms to face the metal man with them.

"What?" Metal Man snapped into the silence of the room. "Everybody already knows who I am, why are you all looking at me like that?!"

"That's a fucking pompous assumption there, ass face." Deadpool, or Wade? said.

"Fuck you. Someone explain what that kid did to my suit, because I can't move."

Danny flailed in Wades arms at that, attempting to apologize in some manner and managed only to aggravate his chest and make the most embarrassing squeak sound he'd ever heard. Danny blushed as Wade cooed at him.

"Don't patronize him, Deadpool!" Daredevil snapped. The man seemed perpetually annoyed. Danny hoped it wasn't his fault.

"Hey, what's _your_ name?" 'Spider-Man' directed the question to Danny. Danny flailed in frustration.

"Ah, kid doesn't seem to be able to talk right now." Wade said for him, seemingly reading Danny's mind. He settled Danny into the beanbag chair and crouched in front of him. "Yes or no, are you a-okay right now?" his face, despite the mask, was sincere, and his voice held nothing but concern.

As much as Danny wanted to lie and say that, yes, he was okay, he couldn't bring himself to. He shook his head. Behind Wade, Spider-Man was poking at Iron Pants.

"Okay, is there anything that might make you feel better right now?" he paused, then seemed to realise his mistake.

Before he could correct himself, Danny waved his hands in front of himself dismissively, while thinking '_a dozen pizzas and a gallon of water wouldn't go unappreciated.'_ but he knew the man couldn't actually hear his thoughts. He was proven wrong, however, when Wade next spoke.

"A dozen Pizzas and a gallon of water it is!" Wade said excitedly, clapping his hands together. Danny stared incredulously at Wade. "Anything else?" Danny shook his head.


	14. Chapter 14

[_Sure is convenient that the kid know's sign language._] **{I know, right! That makes everything so much easier!}**[_that wasn't the point I was trying to make._] Wade ignored the voices in favor of digging his phone out of his pocket. There were far more people in his safe house than he was comfortable with, and the knowledge that he would have to give up this safe house made him a little sad. Once he found his phone, he turned back to the kid. [_so long as he's able to communicate, we should ask him his name._]

"Hey, what kind of pizza do you want?" Wade asked instead. He was sure that the kid would have told them his name if he wanted them to know. The kid stared at him and slowly raised an eyebrow. "You know what, I'll just get one of every kind. That way you have options!" **{Pizza party!}**

In the background, Wade was vaguely aware of Daredevil explaining his side of things to Stark, and the ensuing argument about something or other. Whatever it was, it was none of Wade's concern. Wade tapped the contact titled 'pizza- will deliver to warehouse'. He was spun around by a heavy hand on his shoulder just as he raised the phone to his ear. He lifted an eyebrow at Stark as he listened to the ringing on the other end of the line.

"Explain." Stark demanded. Wade motioned to the phone, and waited for someone to pick up. Starks grip tightened on his shoulder. "Who are you calling?" the phone clicked as someone picked up on the other end of the line.

"NY Pizza, what can I get for you?" a nasally voice asked. Wade perked up.

"Hey! I'd like a dozen pizza's of every type that you make!" He responded. Stark let go of his shoulder and took a step back.

"Deadpool, are you seriously ordering Pizza right now?" Daredevil asked. His tone was defeated, and Wade wondered if the man had been sleeping lately with how tired he'd been sounding.

"Is that for pickup, or delivery?"

"Delivery, please!" Wade ignored everyone else to respond. He continued ordering Pizza as everyone in the room stared at him. Order made, Wade hung up the phone and turned his attention back to everyone else in the room. "Okay, now that that's dealt with, what did you want, Stanky?"

"Do you _legitimately_ not know my name, or are you just trying to piss me off?" Oops, Stark sounded pretty mad. Wade shrugged. [_you're just trying to piss him off._]

"Or maybe, he still hasn't introduced himself, and if he's going to be rude, than why shouldn't I!" Stark pulled his faceplate back, and then levelled a glare at him.

"So you do know my name."

"I thought you wanted to know what Deadpools involvement here is, why are you asking him about your name?" Daredevil interrupted, before they could devolve into a shouting match about Starks name.

"I did… I mean I _do_!" Stark stuttered in response. "Look, just, _someone_ explain."

"Oh, is that all? I was only there for the Weapon X bastards. I don't know what everyone else was doing there. In fact, why are you all still here? Don't you have places to be?" Wade just wanted to focus on making sure that the kid that he had acquired was okay, and at this point everyone else was just starting to annoy him. He waved his hands in a shooing motion at them.

"Wait, back up, Weapon X?" Daredevil asked.

"Yeah, and Hydra. If you didn't know that was them, what were you doing there?"

"I was just trying to find the kidnapped people!"

"I knew there was a reason that place gave me the heebie jeebies!" Spider-kid exclaimed.

"Heebie jeebies? What, are you eighty now?" Wade asked.

"I might be! You don't know!"

"Woah, wait! Spidey, why didn't you tell me that building set off your spider sense?" Stark asked.

"I thought Karen marked it suspicious in the patrol logues? Don't you check those?"

**{who's Karen?}** "Who's Karen?" Daredevil echoed the voice.

"Wait, back up did you say _kidnapped_ people?" Stark asked, at the same time Spider-Kid said "She's the lady that Mr. Stark put in my suit!" Wade burst out laughing.

"There's a lady in that suit with you?" Wade wheezed. "Where are you even hiding her? That thing is skin tight!" Stark went bright red, and the Spider-Kid made a choking sound.

"AI!" Spider-Kid corrected, voice high pitched. "She's the AI that Mr. Stark put in my suit!"

"Oh, that makes more sense." Wade said, trying not to laugh more. [_his phrasing was pretty bad._] **{I know, right? Are we sure that there's not an actual lady in there with him, though?}** "Pretty sure. If there were a real lady in there, we'd be able to tell. That suit leaves very little to the imagination." Stark went even more red.

"Someone explain the kidnapped people!" Stark demanded. Something smacked Wade in the back of the head and he spun around. The Kid had a slight smile on his face, and Wade glanced down at the thing that had hit him. There was a gun lying on the floor at his feet. [_did he just throw a gun at us?_]

"Did you just throw a gun at me?" the kids smile widened ever so slightly. **{Were we supposed to be getting something for him?}** "we ordered the pizza!" [_water. He asked for water._] "Oh shit! The water!"

Wade opened his mini fridge, then immediately closed it when he remembered that the only thing in there was beer and rotten leftovers from the last time he'd stayed here, which was a while ago. "I'll go find you something to drink. I'll be right back. Don't let any of these chuckle fucks touch you. I don't trust a single one of them, okay?" the kid nodded. "Good. I'll be _right. Back._"

Wade backed out of the room, keeping his eyes locked on the kid for as long as possible, before turning and darting down the hall to get water for the kid.


	15. Chapter 15

Danny watched the back and forth between everyone in the room after Wade had ordered the pizza, becoming increasingly confused as the conversation went. Weapon X, Danny thought, must have been the scientists that were experimenting on him, since they'd mentioned Hydra before, but Daredevil said that he was there for the kidnapped people, which Danny had had no idea about.

He'd also noted that Wade had a tendency to talk to himself, like, legitimate conversation type talk to himself, which no one else had seemed to notice. But the information that Wade didn't trust the people that he'd just left him in the room with made him uncomfortable. He'd been amused listening to their conversation before, but now that Wade had left the room, he was feeling unsafe.

He tried to reassure himself by touching his core repeatedly, but it didn't seem to help much. At least the other's in the room were ignoring him in favour of the argument that they were having. Well, the adults were. Spider-Man was staring at him like he was the most fascinating thing in the world. Danny touched his core again, feeling his eye's light green the longer he held it. He released it with a deep breath.

The sudden lack of voices caught his attention, and he looked back at the adults. Daredevils head was back in his hands, and he was rubbing his temples. The metal man, who still hadn't introduced himself, was looking at Spider-Man. Daredevil settled back on the couch as the metal man approached Spider-Man.

"Are you alright, kiddo?" he asked, his voice much quieter than before. Spider-Man finally looked away from Danny.

"I'm fine, Mr. Stark." he answered. Ah, the _metal man_ was Mr. Stark, who had put the AI in Spider-Mans suit. He must be smart, than, if he could do that. Spider-Man turned his gaze back to Danny, and 'Mr. Stark' followed where he was looking. Danny felt his entire body go tense at the calculating look in the man's eyes.

Daredevils head snapped up from his hands when Mr. Stark started to approach him, and Danny's breathing went shallow. "What are you doing, Stark?" he asked. His voice was sharp, and more than a little cold. Stark paused in his approach.

"I'm just checking on the kid?" his tone was questioning. Danny forced himself to appear relaxed, though his chest still felt tight, and he knew he wasn't breathing properly.

"The kid's fine, leave him alone."

"Fine? _Fine?!_ Daredevil, the kids covered in blood! Does that _look _fine to you?!"

"Of course not, but if you think for even a _second_ that Deadpool wouldn't gut you if he thought you hurt that kid, then you are sorely mistaken."

"And you think the sort of person that would _gut_ someone is who should be taking care of a kid? He's fucking bleeding!" Danny shrunk back into the bean bag at the anger in the mans voice.

"I _think_ that you should stop yelling, and maybe try _not_ to piss off the unstable _mercenary_ who doesn't trust us." Daredevils voice was much quieter than Starks, but it also held a note of repressed anger, like he wanted to yell back.

"I don't think that we should leave a kid with a mercenary at all! Let alone one that you have just openly admitted is unstable!" Stark yelled. "In fact, I think that I might just take the kid with me for _proper medical attention!_"

A hand touched Danny's shoulder, and he jumped at the contact and swiveled his head to see Wade standing behind him. Wade wasn't looking at Danny though, he was looking at Stark. In Wades other hand were a few water bottles.

"That's a horrible idea," Daredevil said. Danny could hear that he was about to say more, but Stark interrupted him.

"I don't need the approval of some _vigilante_ to do what I _know_ is the right thing!" Wade slipped his hand down Danny's back to help him sit up, dropping the water bottles to the side when he whined. Stark turned back around to face Danny just as Wade had pulled him into his arms and sat down with him in his lap, Danny's back leaning into Wades chest for support, and almost sighing as the heat chased the cold away. Stark froze when he saw them.

Wade opened a bottle and handed it to Danny, waiting until he started drinking before he pulled out a gun and set it on his knee. Danny watched with wide eyes as he flipped the safety off.

"I think," Wade said slowly, his chest rumbling pleasantly against Danny's back with the low pitch of it. "That you should all leave," Danny felt immense relief at the cool water as it slid down his sore throat. Starks expression darkened, but just as he opened his mouth to speak again, a squeaky, high pitched voice interrupted him.

"What a brilliant idea, Mr. Wilson, Deadpool sir!" everyone looked at Spider-Man where he was, pressed against a window halfway up the wall and on the other side of the room. "We should definitely be going now! So sorry to have intruded on your space for so long! We'll be going now! Bye!" Spider-man flipped open the window behind him as he spoke, and disappeared as soon as the last word was spoken. Danny stared, jaw dropped and wide eyed at the spot where the teen had been _clinging_ to the wall.

A _screech_ drew their attention to the other side of the room by the main door, where they saw Daredevil standing.

"Good luck, Stark!" Daredevil called, shutting the door behind him. Danny looked back at Stark. The man was white as a sheet and staring back at them with wide eyes. It was silent for a while, no one moving except for when Wade handed Danny another water bottle when his first was empty.

Then, there came a knock at the door, and Danny could feel the shift in Wades disposition as the man perked up. The door opened with the same _screech_ that it had before, and a young man pulled a red wagon, labeled with 'PIZZA' in shaky marker, through the door. The wagon squealed worse than the door did under the weight of dozens of pizza boxes stacked on it. The man paused as he took in the scene before him, then shrugged as he dragged the overloaded wagon across the room. He dropped the thing next to Wade, and looked at him expectantly.

"Your total is $1,440. Will you be paying with cash or card today, Mr. Wilson?" the mans tone was bored, and Danny's eyes bulged as he registered what the man had said. Wade shuffled around until he pulled out a roll of bills, kept together with an elastic band. He tossed the thing at the man.

"Cash, as always!" he exclaimed. "Keep the change, Jeffery!" The man thumbed through the roll of bills for a moment before pocketing it.

"Thank you for choosing NY Pizza." he said, turning and heading back towards the door. Under his breath, and barely audible, Danny heard him mutter "My name is Rob, how many times have I told him this?"

"Pizza Party!" Wade exclaimed, smoothly removing the gun from his knee, flipping the safety, and reholstering it before he reached for a box. "You joining us, Snarky?"

Stark nodded, and then practically collapsed backwards onto the couch.


	16. Chapter 16

Tony watched as the crazy mercenary seated across from him passed a box of pizza to the bloody teenager cradled in his arms, and then grabbed his own. He was perplexed that the teen would even allow this. "You want to pick a pizza, Snarky?" Deadpool, or Wade, asked. Tony flinched at the sound of his voice, but it was much lighter now than it had been earlier.

Tony wasn't very hungry, but he still stood up to grab a box of pizza, this one labeled 'pepperoni' before sitting back down on the couch. He was extremely aware that both the kid and the man had watched him closely as he moved, and Tony felt a bit like he was picking his way through a minefield with the tension in the room. Tony watched as Wade ducked his chin to his chest and pulled up his mask to eat a slice of pizza, hiding his chin from view behind the kids head.

Tony grabbed his own slice and ate it slowly. The grease sat heavy on his tongue, but he was slightly afraid that if he didn't eat with them, then Wade was going to make him leave, and the teenager still very clearly needed medical attention. Tony was still trying to figure out how to convince the clearly dangerous man when Wade pulled his mask down, and tipped his head back to whine like a petulant child.

"But I don't _wanna_!" Both the teen in Wades lap and Tony stared at the man. It was silent for another moment after Wade had spoken, and the man tipped his head to the side as though listening. "_Fiiiine_." he whined. He tipped his head back upright to look at Tony. "I know the kid needs medical attention."

Tony perked up at those words. Was the man relenting? Could Tony take the kid back to the Stark labs med center with him? Wade was speaking again before Tony could even figure out how to ask his questions.

"But if he goes, I go. And no one is allowed to touch him without me there." Tony nodded vigorously.

"Of course! So long as he gets looked at, then I'm happy." he said. Wade grumbled to himself, but Tony ignored him, standing up from the couch.

"Finish your pizza." Wade said to him before he could even finish straightening up. Tony glanced at the open box on the couch, full except for the single slice that he'd taken, then to the three empty boxes on the floor next to Wade and the kid. How they'd eaten so much so quickly, Tony had no idea, but he sat back down regardless, only grabbing a second slice when Wade continued to stare at him. Tony ate his second slice, then picked at the box absently as he waited for Wade and the kid to finish eating.

Tony wasn't too concerned with getting the kid medical attention right this second, seeing as he was awake, eating, drinking, and if Tony looked closely at the bandages wrapped haphazardly around the kids chest, the blood didn't appear to be spreading anymore. Wade clapped his hands loudly, and Tony jumped as he spun to look at them. There was a pile of boxes by their feet now, though the stack of pizzas in the wagon didn't really look like they'd put a dent in it at all. He wondered exactly how many a dozen pizza's of every type _was_.

"Ready to go?" Tony asked. He was aware that his tone was probably a tad too excited, given the flat glare that Wade levelled at him.

"Sure. Did you happen to bring a car with you, or do I need to call a cab?" Wade's question caused Tony to deflate slightly.

"Uh… I can call my driver?" Tony said, hesitantly.

"I'll call a cab. You gonna eat more pizza?" Tony shook his head.

"Oh, uh, no, I'm not really that hungry."

"Have more pizza, Stark." Wade's tone brooked no argument, and Tony grabbed yet another slice of pizza. He glanced at the kid as Wade pulled out a phone, and saw that he had fallen asleep, curled in towards Wade's chest, with his head on the mans shoulder. Tony had no idea how the kid could have managed to fall asleep on such a dangerous man. Wade hung up the phone and turned to face Tony just as he'd finished his third slice of pizza.

"You ever done the Cha Cha slide in your armor?" He asked. Tony stared at him, bewildered. "No? Well, that's no fun. I bet it would sound fucking atrocious. _Sliiide to the left!_" Wade paused, nodding his head. "_Sliiiide to the right._" another pause, followed by a giggle. "_One hop this time!_"

"What the fuck are you on about?" Tony asked, interrupting Wade's giggling.

"Oh! You were actually listening to me? Usually when I talk, people just ignore me. Like, on the way over here, I was telling Daredevil about the other universes that I've been to, and he didn't even say a _thing_ in return until we got here. You know what's a fun word to say? Chimichanga's." Wade talked so fast that Tony felt a little bit like his head was spinning.

"What's a chimichanga?" Tony asked. Wade stuttered in the next word that he was saying, and stared for a brief moment.

"It's like a burrito, but deep fried. They're pretty good, but they're not my favourite. Common misconception, that. I just like the word. Chimichanga. Chimichanga. See it's fun to say!"

Tony nodded along as Wade spoke. Clearly this was the norm for the man, and the eerie silence earlier was not. It made Tony wonder just how much he'd pissed the man off that he'd gone silent. Well, clearly enough that Peter had fled without even making sure that Tony would follow.

"...But not really that episode, because it's a bit dull. Hey, you ever watch supernatural? Good show, good show. Starts getting repetitive sometime after the second apocalypse, but what can you do? Any show would get repetitive if it goes on long enough. Like Spongebob! That show is _ancient_ and they're still airing new episodes! At least, I think they are, I haven't checked in a while, do you think they're still airing new episodes?"

"I don't watch cartoons." Tony answered, his head starting to hurt from the rapid fire speaking and lack of sleep. Wade gasped.

"You're _still_ listening? I could have sworn you checked out at Chimichangas. Wow. I can't believe people say you're an asshole. I don't think anyone's actually tried to listen to everything I say since, like, _ever._ Not even Weasel listens when I start talking like this, and he's like, my best friend!" Tony felt a little bad for the masked man.

"Ah, well, you'll probably check out at some point. Hey, what's the most gruesome way you've ever killed someone? I'd tell you mine, first, but I can't actually decide which one is the most gruesome." all of Tony's sympathy went out the window, and he stared in shock at the man, abruptly reminded why he wanted to get the teen away from him. "... and then there was that time that I skinned a man and made him eat his own dick, but that one was within the job parameters, so I'm not sure it exactly counts. Or maybe it does? I'll have to ask Weasel, but, really, maybe the worst one was…"

Tony forced himself to tune the man out as he attempted to not throw up all over his shoes.


	17. Chapter 17

Matt slipped into his apartment from the fire escape at his living room window, sighing in relief that he was home. His headache had been steadily building since he'd heard that scream, that _wail_, and was now throbbing steadily behind his eyes. It was nearly bad enough now to disorient him, and he'd pulled off his cowl before he registered the familiar heartbeat in the middle of his apartment.

"Matt." Foggy said. Matt froze, hand still raised mid-air, and cowl laying against his neck, like he was wearing a hoodie. Could this day get _any_ worse?

"Who's Matt?" he asked, before he could stop himself. He frowned. This headache was really throwing him off. "Nevermind, don't answer that. That was stupid." Foggy snorted a short laugh. "What are you doing here?"

"I _was_ coming to check up on you, but then you weren't here, so I decided to wait for you. The door was unlocked." Foggy didn't seem even the least bit surprised that Matt was dressed as Daredevil, or that he'd just crawled through his own apartment window. Hmm.

"How long have you known?" he asked. Might as well get this out of the way while he could. No use dragging it out, or even trying to deny it at this point. All that was left was damage control.

"I've suspected for a while, but I wasn't entirely certain until just now." ah, so he'd failed to be inconspicuous. Stick would be disappointed.

"Does anyone else know?" He rubbed his hand over his face as he spoke.

"Not that I know of," Foggy paused. "I saw the news." alright, that was supposed to be significant somehow. Matt tilted his head as he tried to figure out what Foggy was getting at. Foggy sighed. "The shooting range? The police went in after the fire mysteriously went out, and they found an entire underground facility? There wasn't much released to the press, but I heard that they found a lot of missing people, and that almost all of them were brought to the hospital." Matt nodded.

"I'm glad they're safe. I was a little distracted at the time, so I couldn't check on them."

"Would you mind maybe explaining what happened, then, because I'd really like to know." Foggy sounded concerned, which was almost worse than angry. Matt sighed.

"Maybe later. I'd really like to get some sleep, It's been a long few weeks."

"Alright, fine. I'll see you in the morning, Matt. I have some other questions that I would like answered, but you look like you need to sleep. Don't think you can avoid answering them forever." and then Matt was alone in his apartment. He sighed again.

"Dear lord who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." he muttered to himself as he grabbed a cup of water, then stripped out of his costume and went to bed, where he lay awake for a few hours, wondering if the kid and Tony Stark were okay with Deadpool. Peter was safe, he was sure of it, but he didn't think that Stark was one to back down from a challenge. He just hoped that the man didn't get himself killed for it. And that Deadpool would manage to not traumatize the child.

* * *

The Cab had arrived shortly after Wade had started to tell Stark about some of his favourite targets. The absolute relief on Starks face when they had gotten in the cab was comedy gold, and at this point Wade was sure the man was only listening because he couldn't manage to fully tune him out.

Watching the mans face go as white as a sheet when he started telling the cab driver about the time that he strangled a man with his own intestines was _glorious_, and Stark deserved it for trying to snatch the precious injured child out from under him. Oddly enough, telling the cab driver about the time that he murdered someone for not driving him fast enough seemed to make the cab go faster, additionally ignoring some pointless traffic laws. [_I know you know what you're doing_]

"Of course I know what I'm doing. But do you know that I know that you know that I know that you know that I know what I'm doing?" [_for the love of Bea Arthor, will you please stop?_] **{look at Starks face. He looks like he's going to throw up!}** Wade looked, and sure enough Stark was starting to look a little green around the gills. "Hey, who came up with that saying anyway? What does it even mean? People don't have gills!" [_I… I don't actually know. Huh._] **{who cares what it means! Do you think we could actually make him throw up if we tried?}** "Easiest way to make someone throw up would be to just stick your fingers down their throat, but I don't think that's very sanitary for the kid." **{Oh no! You're right! Is he still asleep? Quick! Did he hear anything we said about… you know… **_**unaliving?**_**} **_[why are you whispering? They can't hear us._] Wade glanced at the kid who was in the seat by the door, leaning against Wades shoulder and clearly still deep asleep.

Just then the cab screeched to a halt outside some sciency looking building, and Stark practically fell out the door he moved so fast. [_looks like he doesn't want to be around you anymore than anyone else does_] Wade slide out the same side, then moved around the cab to carefully lift the kid out into his arms, doing his best not to wake him in the process. The cab screeched off before Wade could even ask the fare. [_good going, moron. You scared him off._]

Wade shrugged and followed Stark into his science building.


	18. Chapter 18

Consciousness came gradually to Danny. He was aware, even in the snowy landscape of his dreams, of the rumble of a deep voice, and the comforting warmth that it provided. The motion of being carried is what nudged him into wakefulness, content though he was to just lay in Wades arms and let himself be carried. He was still far enough from wakefulness that he couldn't manage to make out any words.

He let himself drift back into sleep, until he felt himself being settled onto a bed, reminding him of his mother tucking him in as the hands stayed on him for a moment, arranging his limbs into a comfortable position. Danny made sure to grab one when both hands made as if to retreat. He hummed contentedly when the other returned to brush through his hair. The hand he was holding tightened on his minutley right before someone else touched him, and his eyes snapped open.

He was met with bright, sterile white walls, and a room filled with torture equipment. The hand that had touched him belonged to a man in a bright white labcoat and suit, who was holding a needle in his opposite hand and staring wide eyed at Danny. A thin whine left Danny's throat as he attempted to scream, and then he reached for his core, suddenly unsure that he could actually feel it. A bright flash of light filled the room, and the GIW scientist dropped his needle as he stumbled away from the bed that Danny was on.

Burning pain spread through Danny, centered from his core, and he screamed again as he dropped his hold on it. As soon as the pain faded enough for him to move, he crawled as fast as he could to the warm pillar of comfort that had let go of him when he'd screamed. He grabbed onto the man as soon as he could, and practically climbed up him to cling to his shoulders. Arms wrapped around his waist to support him as he clung on.

Danny pushed back from him when he remembered that the man had been the one to put him here in the first place. The arms gently lowered him back to the bed as he froze in his confusion. The man was safety, pure and simple. There was no way that he would have brought Danny back to the scientists to be experimented on, not when he'd been the one to save Danny from them in the first place. The man was muttering, and Danny focused on the words that he was saying, rather than the comforting vibrations of his voice.

"... Shouldn't have brought him here." a pause. "It was your damn idea!" another pause. "Well, maybe if you'd stopped to think about it for a minute, you would have known that this was a terrible fucking plan. '_Bring the traumatized kid to a hospital room._' you said." his voice turned mocking for a moment. "'_The kid needs proper medical attention'_ you said. Well, look how that fucking backfired!"

Now that Danny thought about it, he did remember Wade saying something about medical attention earlier, but he'd been so focused on getting food in his stomach that he'd barely even registered it. This time when Danny looked around the room, he recognized the heart monitor and other equipment for what it was, and not what his panicked mind had perceived it as. The needle that lay on the floor was filled with clear fluid, possibly a pain killer, rather than glowing green ectoplasm.

Danny waved his hand at Wade, attempting to get his attention now that he was calmed down. Wade's mouth snapped shut as soon as he caught the movement, and he was immediately focused on Danny with all of his body language. Danny smiled sheepishly at him, attempting to somehow communicate that he was okay now. Wade straightened up a little more.

"You're okay?" he said, quietly. Danny nodded. "I'm so so sorry. I should have known you might freak out, waking up in a strange hospital room. This isn't even a hospital, it's just a med bay. I should have woken you up before we got here. If I'd done that, then at least you would have known what was happening!" Danny shrugged. It was really nice to see just how much Wade wanted him to be comfortable.

Wade stared at him for a long moment, before nodding to himself. "Are you alright to let the doctor over there look under your bandages?" he asked. Danny tentatively nodded in response, eyeing the doctor, who now stood patiently off to the side, suspiciously.

As soon as Danny had nodded, the doctor grabbed another needle and approached the bed, slowly. "This is morphine, I'm going to give you a little bit to help with the pain, okay?" Danny gently grabbed Wade's hand to ground himself as the doctor spoke, nodding when he paused for Danny to respond.

The doctor gave him a fake looking smile as he gently grabbed Danny's arm. "It's just going to be a little pinch, I'm sure you'll barely feel it," Danny clenched his eye's shut and squeezed Wade's hand as the doctor pressed the needle into his arm.

"That's a pretty tight grip there, kid." Wade said, voice cheerful. Danny cracked his eyes open to look at him as the doctor pressed the plunger on the needle down, and Danny felt the cold rush through him, spreading out from where the needle was placed. The doctor pulled back and set the needle aside. "How you doing, kiddo?"

Danny shrugged in response, as best he could. He was doing his best not to think about ectoplasm being injected into his veins, honestly, but there was no way for him to express that to Wade. The doctor speaking interrupted his thoughts.

"I'm just going to take these bandages off and have a look at your chest, alright?" Danny squeezed Wade's hand even harder when the doctor leaned over him and started cutting through the bandages. The world was starting to feel a bit fuzzy around him, though, so he didn't move or even attempt to protest. Wade was here, so he would be safe.

The doctor breathed in a sharp gasp as soon as the bandages were properly off, and Danny tensed a little at the sudden noise, his eyes snapping back open to watch the doctor. The man turned and got a little dish, and a pile of cotton balls, as well as a pair of long tweezers.

"I'm just going to clean this up a little bit, so I can see how bad it is, okay?" he said, the words sounding a little bit like listening through cotton. "Are you still with me, young man?" Danny blinked slowly up at him in response, the world slow around him.

"Okay," the doctor said. "You just close your eyes and relax, you don't even have to think of anything." Danny nodded absently, but flinched when something cold and wet touched his chest. He watched warily as the man dabbed at the angry raised flesh of the vivisection scar with multiple cotton balls, discarding them when they discoloured. Danny relaxed again when nothing more happened, letting the odd disconnected feeling carry him away from the situation.

There were more words spoken, whether it was Wade or the doctor was unknown, but then there was something sharp brushing the edge of the wound, and Danny's eyes snapped open yet again. He practically crushed Wade's hand in his as he curled away from the scissors that had been touching his chest. The doctor pulled back with a concerned expression.

"I'm just going to take out these stitches so I can redo them, nothing more," the man soothed. "Is that okay?" Danny slumped back down on the bed, fully aware of his surroundings and body again. The doctor continued to look at him with a questioning expression, so Danny nodded.

The scissors touched his chest again, and Danny watched as the stitches were removed so gently that he barely even felt any more than the cool metal touching his chest. He suppressed a shiver each time they moved. The last of the stitches came out, and the doctor gently ran another wet cotton ball down his chest before starting on restitching him. Danny watched warily the entire time, squeezing Wades hand for comfort whenever one was felt more strongly, though he barely felt more than a slight poke each time.

It didn't take that long before the doctor was tying off the last thread and snipping it. Then he carefully cleaned it one last time, asked Danny to sit up, and then rewrapped his chest in bandages.

"Now let's take a look at your throat," he said, grabbing some tool off the wall where it hung, with a flashlight. "Say 'ah'." the man said absently. Danny opened his mouth, though he didn't even attempt to make a noise. Wade giggled quietly next to him before starting to mutter to himself again. The doctor hummed to himself as he looked down Danny's throat. "Your throat seems to have sustained damage common with overuse, but it should heal on its own. Just take it easy and rest it for a few days, and you should be back to talking however much you please. I'd also recommend IV fluids for dehydration, too, but we're not qualified to give those here, so just drink as much water as you can."

Danny smiled happily to himself as the doctor left the room. This wasn't permanent. He'd be able to talk again. Danny gripped Wades hand to his chest as he lay down and let himself drift. Now he just had to figure out how to get home from here.


	19. Chapter 19

**Brief Note**: This chapter has some pretty heavy themes. I'd say more, but it also has far more impact if you don't know what it is. Proceed with caution, I guess?

* * *

Wade watched as the kids face smoothed out into sleep and his hand loosened its grip on Wades. Wade carefully extracted his hand from the kids. [_you're being creepy._] A brief glance at his hands told him that he'd forgotten his gloves back at the Weapon X labs, and that he still wasn't wearing any. Anyone could just look and see his skin. **{You're disgusting.}** Wade breathed in a deep breath and dug a spare set of gloves from one of his pouches, pulling them on and hoping no one had bothered to notice. He didn't think the kid had, since he was clearly still delirious, but he couldn't believe that he hadn't even noticed that his hands were bare.

**{They all noticed.}** [_Stark's not stupid, of course he noticed._]**{Maybe that's why he looked so nauseous.}** "no, I was trying to freak him out. I don't think he noticed." [_of course he noticed, too polite to say anything to the deranged killer, though. Maybe he has some self preservation instincts. More than choir boy, certainly._] "Daredevil took off as soon as I became dangerous. Stark didn't. I think that says something about his self preservation instincts, don't you?" **{you should have killed him for trying to take the kid from us.}** "I'm not going to kill him." [_you're right. Because you're a failure, and you couldn't even if you tried._]

The kid shifted in his sleep, and Wade froze for a moment. He settled back into the sheets and Wade relaxed again. "You're not going to goad me into killing Stark. Besides, he's done nothing wrong." **{that you know of.} **[_wasn't it his company supplying terrorists with weapons? He deserves to die for that._] Wade shook his head. "He changed. People change." [_you don't really believe that, do you? He may not make weapons anymore, but that doesn't make him a good person. Better than you, though._] "Stop," **{or what, you're gonna cry like a baby? 'Waah waah, I want my mommy!'}**

Wade was about to snap a reply, but the door opening cut him off and distracted him from the voices for a moment. He turned to the door to see a pale Stark standing there, eyeing him like he was about to go on a killing spree in the middle of the med bay.

"Can we talk for a moment, Deadpool." it was phrased like a question, but it sounded like a demand. [_Wasn't he calling us 'Wade' earlier?_] **{was he? I don't remember him saying our name.}**

"Sure." Wade said, trying to not show how uncertain he was.[_I'm pretty sure he was. Maybe he realised what a monster we are, and wants us to leave_]**{everyone wants us to leave.}** Wade followed Stark out into the hall, just outside of the med room. His stomach churned as the door closed and blocked his view of the kid. [_yeah, everyone hates Wade, he's such a monster._] don't reply to the voices, cant have Stark thinking he's insane as well as psychotic. [_those are the same thing, moron._]

"So, I looked into you a little," Stark started. **{he's scared, look at his eyes.}**[_he thinks we might kill him if he says the wrong thing._]**{we would have done it already if we were going to.}**[_he doesn't know that. And we could still change our mind._]

"Yeah? See anything you like?" Wade's voice didn't shake, but he felt a bit like he might fall apart. He was thankful that his mask didn't portray emotions as well as some of his counterparts did.

"You're not really the type of person that I want around a kid, any kid." Starks voice was hard, though still a little hesitant. [_he's right, you know. Maybe we should leave before he tells us to._] **{kill that dirty doctor for putting his hands on the kid first.}**

"Can't kill the doctor, he didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to." Wade muttered, hoping that Stark didn't hear. Of course he wasn't that lucky though. The man went a bit rigid before he spoke again.

"Sorry, I didn't quite hear you, did you just say you're planning on killing my doctor?" **{see, even he thinks you should kill the doctor!}**[_no he doesn't. He thinks we're planning to, and it makes him uncomfortable. Hey, if he thinks we're going to kill the doctor, do you really think we should be around children?_]

"No, I said that I wasn't going to kill the doctor, because he didn't do anything wrong. He's still a dirty scumbag, though."

"Yeah, I want you out of my building." **{so much for being scared of us.}**[_no, he's definitely terrified. Look, he's shaking._] sure enough, though it was incredibly difficult to tell if you weren't looking for it, Stark _was_ shaking. [_see? Scared. We probably terrify the kid, too._]

"I'm not leaving without the kid." Wade said. He refused to believe that the kid was scared of him. If he was scared, he wouldn't have clung to him earlier. **{he only reached for you because the doctor was scarier.}** Wade found that hard to disagree with. [_really, he'd probably find almost anything comforting right now. He doesn't need you, Stark will be better for him._] the kid had reached for him, though. Had let Wade carry him around like a toy. [_he was only doing that because he's terrified of you. What kind of teenager wants to be coddled like that?_]

"I don't think that's a good idea. Look, Deadpool, he'll be safe here. He doesn't need some insane mercenary with a kill count in the hundreds to be hanging around him. Just… leave." **{Kill him.}**[_he's not wrong. It would be better for everyone if we weren't even here. If we just… didn't exist._] Wade took a deep breath.

"Fine." Stark reeled back, as though he were expecting more of a fight [_he doesn't trust you._] "I'll go. But if I find out that that kid gets anymore injured on your watch, or if anyone else hurts him, I will be back, and I won't be very happy. Capiche?" Stark nodded silently, eyes wide and face pale. [_oh_, _he's definitely terrified of you._]

Wade didn't look back as he left the building. [_you made the right choice. The kid doesn't need you, no one does._] Wade clenched his teeth, allowing himself to become lost in the streets, wandering aimlessly. **{yeah. You have no purpose. Why are you even here?}** It didn't matter. Wade slumped against a brick wall and dimly noted that it had begun to rain. What a cliche. [_you're pointless. The only thing you're good at is creating chaos._]

"I saved that kid." **{oh, you saved him alright. Waited until the last minute to do it, too.}** "What?" [_Face it. If you had just asked Bob for the location to the NYC Hydra branch, you could have saved that kid before they ever cut him open._] Wade felt numb. **{you know we're right. You could have saved that kid a week's worth of pain and torture, but you were out here breaking into buildings to prove a point to the voices in your head.}** Wade shook his head. "I didn't know." [_as if that's worth anything. Face it Wade, if you had just asked for help the kid would have been better off. You might as well have dug that blade into the kids chest yourself._]

Wade slipped into an alley, aware that he was getting odd looks from the people on the streets. "I didn't know!" he tried again. [_That's a lie. You know what Weapon X was like. You knew that they were experimenting on people. You should have expected them to move on to children. After all, children have so much 'potential', don't you think?_] **{You should kill yourself, an apology to the world for what a horrible person you are.}** Wade slumped down on the ground behind a dumpster, Desert Eagle cradled in his hands. [_you're pathetic_]**{you don't deserve the air you breath} **[_A waste of space, eating food you don't even need to survive_] **{you're disgusting. A walking horror show.}** [_you think you're wearing that mask to protect people from you, but you think you're worth touching people with those filthy hands? They're covered in blood._] The gun was a comforting weight in his hands, the cold metal soothing where he held it to his temple. "There's no blood on my hands!" Wade's throat felt thick and sticky as he spoke **{disgusting. You could never wash away all the blood that's touched your hands. You've tainted that child just being near him} **"Stop, please." Wade whispered, tilting his head to the sky. [_there's only one way to end the pain, Wade. you know what you have to do._]

The loud _BANG_ echoed through the alley.

* * *

**Authors Note**

* * *

Hi Everyone! This marks the end of what I'm calling "Arc 1". Depending on how long this story turns out to be, there could be another 2 Arcs to go. Maybe more, but hopefully not. As this is the end of Arc 1, though, I'm going to take a break. Fear not, however, because I do have more chapters written, I just need the time to actually edit them and get them ready to post.

I really appreciate the reviews, too. ("Dadpool" is the funniest thing I've ever read. Thank you, Ressurection99.) I want you all to know that I do read them, even if I don't acknowledge them.

I saw someone mention that the short chapters made it a little hard to really engage with the story, so I'd like to apologize for that. I haven't written anything longer than a couple hundred words in a few years, so this has actually been a pretty big challenge for me, even if I am enjoying writing again. I'm going to try to write longer chapters for Arc 2, but I make no promises. And hey, if anyone lives in NYC feel free to tell me about the city. Or school. Either would be helpful since I was homeschooled and live in Canada.

I really appreciate everyone reading this, and thank you all so much for your reviews. (sorry if this last chapter was a bit too heavy for you.)

Heres some comic recommendations if anyone wants to read them: Special Agent Deadpool, Deadpool Kills Deadpool, Spider-Man/Deadpool, The Amazing Spider-Man(2018), Spider-Man/Daredevil, Spidey.

Again, thanks for reading, and I'll see you in November!


	20. Chapter 20

It was a gorgeous day to take the hoverboard to school, Valerie thought. The sun was shining, she'd woken up early enough to see her dad off to work, and there wasn't a ghost in sight. That didn't mean that she was going to skimp on her pre school patrol, though. No, it was even more important to seek out the ghosts if she couldn't see them.

It was odd, though, that she got to school without seeing hide nor hair of Phantom. Usually she'd see him every morning on her way to school, and she'd give chase until the first bell. Today, she got to school before the first bell, and even had time to get her stuff from her locker and talk to Star on her way to class.

They spoke of nothing in particular, though Valerie did find herself searching for Danny and his friends in the hall. An odd disappointment filled her when she reached class without seeing them, though she brushed it off. It wouldn't be the first time that they were late to class, but today was such a nice day that she still hoped to see them within the morning.

She sat at her desk and took her time setting out her school supplies, humming to herself and giving Star short responses whenever the girl asked her something or paused in conversation for Valerie to give input. Once her stuff was set out, Valerie turned her attention to Star, and they talked about nothing until the bell rang.

Mr. Falluca entered the classroom and set his stuff at his desk. Once he was done, he turned to the class. "Good morning, class," he began. Before he got any further than that, the door opened and Danny's friends entered. Valerie frowned, noticing that Danny wasn't with them. "Ms. Manson, Mr. Foley, you're late."

"Sorry Mr. Falluca," Sam said. Valerie noticed that she sounded exhausted. "I missed my alarm this morning."

"I also missed my alarm." Tucker supplied when Mr. Falluca looked at him. Mr. Falluca sighed.

"Alright, take your seats and we will begin." Valerie watched Sam and Tucker as they took their usual seats, Danny's spot remained conspicuously empty. They looked tired. There were clear bags under Tucker's eyes, as well as Sams if you looked close enough, and their eyes were red. Sam's eyes were also suspiciously wet.

Valerie spent the rest of class sure that something was wrong, and trying to figure out what it might be. Mr. Falluca didn't mention Danny's absence, but Valerie didn't think she was the only one who noticed.

Tucker and Sam spent the entire class whispering to each other and passing notes, and Valerie resolved to talk to them after class. Except that she didn't get the chance, because they disappeared as soon as class was over, and she didn't see them again until their next shared class, just before lunch. She spent that class focused on where Danny should be sitting and completely ignoring whatever book Mr. Lancer was talking about today.

Finally, Valerie tracked them down at the start of lunch, where they sat with Jazz, who looked dead on her feet. Valerie's concern skyrocketed, and she approached the table with her lunch tray. Noticeably, none of the tables occupants had their own food.

"But how can we be sure that he's even in the Zone?" Jazz said. Valerie cleared her throat before the others could respond, and they all jumped before they spun to look at her.

"Hey," Valerie said quietly. "Do you mind if I sit with you guys today?" Sam looked a bit like she was going to say no, before Jazz spoke.

"Go right ahead, Valerie." she sounded even more exhausted than she looked. Sams jaw clenched. Valerie set her tray on the table next to Jazz and sat down. The silence that came with her presence felt awkward, so she decided to ask the question that had been eating at her the whole morning.

"Where's Danny?" She regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. Sams eyes became suspiciously wet again, and Tucker fiddled with his PDA absently, lips a thin line and shoulders tense. But it was Jazz's reaction to the question that hurt the most. There was a short silence before Jazz let out a sob and dropped her head to the table between her arms.

"It's all my fault!" she cried, shoulders shaking and muffled sobs escaping her. "If I'd just stayed home to study, none of this would have happened!"

Sam glared at Valerie while Tucker leaned across the table to try and comfort Jazz. "it's not your fault, Jazz! You didn't know it was going to happen!" Jazz just sobbed harder. "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine! Danny's my best friend, I should have stayed and hung out with him for a bit, instead of leaving right away!"

"If it's your fault, than it's mine, too." Sam added, and Jazz sniffled wetly. Sam looked back to Valerie. "Danny fell through a ghost portal yesterday."

Those seven words made Valerie feel like the bottom of her world had just dropped out. "What can I do to help?" she asked.

* * *

Doctor Martin was forever grateful that she had set up the cameras so that they saved the footage to an off site server. The footage that she watched, in the comfort of her home office, was infuriating. The head of Weapon X was so clearly incompetent, in hindsight, that she couldn't believe that she had ever even thought of using him.

His notes, all of which were also saved to an off site server, this one seperate from the video location, never mentioned any other powers that their extra-dimensional being had. Clearly the creature was powerful, and all that man had ever done was diddle around with vivisection. At least in death he had been useful. Despicable that had she lost countless proper scientists along with him. Her superiors were bound to be displeased.

Ah, but the creature. The video showed him in all his glory, eyes glowing that acid green color as he arched off the table and screamed. The tinny audio of the video was the first to cut out, followed by the camera. The video she'd pulled off the street cameras showed that half an hour later that degenerate Deadpool had made off with _her_ pet project. He would be dealt with in time, but first, the re-acquisition of her creature. The absolute power that the child held was terrifying, and though she was loath to admit it, the thought of having control over that power was arousing, in it's own way.

But Deadpool was not a world renowned mercenary for nothing, and him and the pathetic blind man from Hell's Kitchen had lost surveillance quickly. Infuriating, but she did so love a good challenge.

Her musing was cut short by her phone ringing. She sighed, rubbing her temples as she removed her reading glasses and picked up her phone without checking who it was. It wasn't like she saved numbers, any way.

"Doctor Martin speaking." she answered.

"Doctor Martin, how are you doing this evening? I hear your operation with Weapon X was a bust." The smooth voice on the other end of the phone gave her pause. She swallowed thickly before replying.

"Yes, I hadn't foreseen interference from Deadpool, let alone the vigilantes." Doctor Martin carefully kept her tone even, despite the cold fear in her veins. She _had_ failed, after all, and Hydra wasn't known for their second chances. She only hoped her mistress would be lenient, and give her a second chance.

"And how is the interdimensional portal coming?"

"Ah, the physical base is beyond repair, but the notes are intact, and I believe that we may build the portal even better this time around, and this slight setback may actually be to our benefit." excitement bubbled warmly in her chest, overwhelming the cold fear that had gripped her earlier. "This time we can build it to accommodate for the ectoplasmic byproduct from the beginning, and…"

"Enough." the terror washed the excitement away as abruptly as it had come.

"Yes, ma'am." her voice, she would be proud to say, remained steady and unwavering, despite the fear.

"Do you know the location of the subject that destroyed the facility?"

"Ah, no, not yet, but it will be a small matter to locate him!" the desperation crept into her voice, and she took a steadying breath, hoping the other hadn't noticed. "The vigilante and the mercenary are not subtle, and they have very few resources to go to for care of a child. I'm already monitoring the hospitals for any one matching his description, and all secret agents know what he looks like, and will report him to me immediately upon locating him."

"Very well," was she mistaken, or was that a hint of pride in her mistress' voice? "I will contact you once I have your new lab location, as well as a decoy location that you are to be seen at as often as possible. Do not let the true location slip this time. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am. Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra." the phone cut out with a click, and Doctor Martin slumped down in her chair. The stress would all be worth it to achieve true interdimensional travel. All it would take was a bit of patience, and ruling with an iron thumb. She couldn't slip again. They didn't allow failures, and the only reason she was still alive was that they still had a use for her.

The boy was the key to getting the portal to work properly, she was sure of it. And, once properly conditioned, he would be a spectacular weapon. All she had to do now was _find_ him.


	21. Chapter 21

Danny snapped awake abruptly, his core screaming in his chest to move, to fight, _save!_ He flailed for a moment in the scratchy sheets, limbs uncoordinated and heavy from sleep and disuse. Then the pain in his core faded, slowly but surely, and Danny took a deep breath and looked around the room.

He was alone, the chair next to him where Wade had sat was empty. Where had he gone? _Why _had he gone? Wasn't he supposed to protect Danny? He'd saved him, so why hadn't he stayed? Danny felt oddly disappointed.

His attention switched to the door when he heard the _click_ of the handle turning, joy bubbling up. Wade had come back! Of course he wouldn't leave. Maybe he hadn't outright promised that he would stay, but the man had been protective, bordering on possessive, and there was no way that he'd leave Danny alone in a strange place, even if they didn't know each other.

But it wasn't Wade, it was the other man. The one that had refused to introduce himself earlier. Stark, he thought he remembered the other's calling him. Spider-Man had called him _Mr_. Stark, though, so that meant he still didn't know the man's first name. Whatever, that wasn't important. Where had Wade gone? He'd said earlier that he didn't trust this man, so why was Danny alone in the room with him?

"Oh, hey kiddo. You're awake." Stark sounded surprised when he spoke, as if he'd expected him to still be asleep.

If he thought Danny was asleep then why was he here? Danny looked around again for Wade. There was another door in the room, presumably one that led into the bathroom. It was closed. Maybe Wade was in there? How could Danny ask Stark what he needed to? Wade was able to read his mind, maybe, but Stark clearly couldn't so how did Danny ask where Wade was. And what did Stark even want with him?

"Don't worry, kid, that psychopath is gone. You're safe now." Psychopath? Who was he talking about? And where was Wade?! Maybe he could mouth the question at Stark? Well, couldn't hurt to try. Probably.

"_Where's Wade?"_ he mouthed at the man, gesturing for effect. Stark frowned.

"Ah, sorry kid, I don't know sign language. I'll grab you something to write with, hang on." and Stark left the room.

Hang on, _sign language_? Why would Stark need to know sign language, and how would that help? Danny didn't know sign, so why did the man seem to think that would help? Stark came back into the room carrying a sleek… computer monitor, maybe? What was that thing? A chalkboard? No, it was made of glass, and the man had a flying metal suit that he, presumably, made himself. There's no way the man would give him a chalkboard.

"Here you go, just open up the document app and type out whatever you need to say." Stark said as he dropped the thing in Danny's lap.

Danny tentatively picked the thing up, turning it over and examining it closely. It was thin, definitely made of glass and metal. It was about the same size as a clipboard, and it didn't even have a keyboard, so how was he supposed to type on this thing? As he turned it over again his fingers brushed against a button on the side, and he clicked it. The glass side of the device lit up, and understanding started to dawn on Danny. The thing was like an unwieldy and inconvenient PDA!

He glanced at Stark, and saw that the man was watching him with a raised eyebrow. "Never held a Stark Tablet before, kid?" he asked when he noticed Danny looking at him. Danny shook his head, mouthing the word 'tablet' to himself as he looked back at the thing in his hands.

Okay, not a PDA, but maybe a tablet was similar? He still didn't see any buttons to navigate the device with, but he figured it was maybe like Sams newest phone, the one with the slide out keyboard.

"Jesus, kid, do you not know how to use it?" Stark sounded a little frustrated, angry maybe, and the question was likely rhetorical, but Danny shook his head in response anyway. "Seriously?"

Danny glanced up at the man again, and almost wanted to laugh at his expression. He didn't, obviously. He didn't know the man, and Wade had said that he didn't trust him, or any of the other people that had been there, for that matter. What if this man decided he wasn't worth whatever effort he was putting in, or that he was an interesting 'specimen' like Ajax? He could strap Danny down to the cot at any time, and it wasn't like Danny could do much about it! Sure, he had his core back, but earlier it had _burned_ when he tried to use it, and Danny wasn't sure that he could fight the man off if he decided to cut into him like the other's had.

"Kid? Are you okay?" Danny trembled on the bed. He was alone here. Where was Wade? Wade would protect him, would save him from this man, who would inevitably decide that he was worth experimenting on. Or maybe Spider-Man would help? The kid could climb walls, did that mean that he was like Danny? But Spider-Man trusted Stark, had said that Stark had put the lady, an AI (and how cool was that? Tucker would love it!) in his suit for him.

"Hey, you're hyperventilating. If you can hear me, I need you to breathe. Kid?" What if Stark was the one who gave Spider-Man the ability to stick to walls? Apparently human experimentation wasn't uncommon on this world, so it couldn't be that far-fetched, could it?

The room was going kind of dark around the edges, and Danny could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He struggled to breathe, but he didn't really need to. He was dead, dead people don't breathe. So he stopped trying to breathe, focusing instead on trying to sort out the thoughts tumbling around in his head.

Spider-Man was an unusual name, for sure, but Danny had just brushed it off earlier. What if he was brain-washed? Or more be controlled! Being manipulated by this man, Stark, into… into what? What would Stark need a 'Spider' human for? He didn't know, but anything that came to mind wasn't anything _good_, now was it? A weapon, maybe. Or a spy! An assassin? None of it was good. No, Spider-Man wouldn't protect him, he wasn't any more safe than Stark was. If anything, Phantom should be the one to protect Spider-Man from this monster!

Phantoms chest burned. His core! What was wrong with his core? Why did it burn? "Kid, _breathe._ Please breathe!" His core burned, it _hurt_, he felt like he was drowning.

Ajax had touched it. Ajax had touched it? He touched it! It wasn't meant to be touched! Danny may have nicknamed the man "soap man" but he was anything but clean. He had touched his core. He needed to get it out. It was unclean. _Wrong_. Wrongwrong_wrongwrong WRONG_! OUT, he needed it out!

Phantom clawed at his chest. Out! It was wrong, wrong. He needed it out, out _now_. Unclean. Wrong. Tainted. He could dig it out, purify it. The cut was already there, all he needed to do was to reopen it and pull the _wrongwrongwrong_ out, and he'd be okay.

Hands grabbed his wrists tightly, pulling his wet hands away from his chest. Phantom struggled against the grip, angry noises bubbling out of his sore throat.

"_Breathe!_" someone was shouting at him. They sounded like they were underwater.

"Please, breathe!"

They were begging. Who were they begging? He should help. He needed to help, it was his purpose. "Kid, please!" were they crying? They sounded like they were crying. Who were they talking to? It couldn't be him. He was a ghost, dead. Ghost's don't breathe.

Someone was holding his wrists. Who? Phantom focused on it. It was odd; the grip was tight, firm and unwavering, but they weren't forcing his hands down, just holding him.

"Please."

There wasn't anyone else here, just him and the man begging for someone to breathe. Phantom didn't need to, he was dead. But he wasn't Phantom right now, was he? His chest ached, but it wasn't his core. Did… did _he_ need to breathe? He pulled in an experimental breath, and the world rushed back in around him.

Stark was holding his wrists in a white knuckled grip, and Danny's hands were dripping red with blood. He looked at his chest. The bandages were torn and soggy with blood, and the recently re-stitched scar on his chest was sluggishly oozing red. Bleeding.

"You back with me, kid?" Starks voice sounded wet and panicked, and Danny looked up at him. His eyes were red rimmed and damp, and he looked pale. Danny swallowed thickly and pulled in another burning breath before nodding.

His chest ached, but it was his lungs and not his core which burned. Stark let go of his wrists and sagged back into the chair next to the bed. "Thank god." Stark breathed, sounding both relieved and exhausted. "I'll call doctor whatshisface to fix those stitches, then. If that's alright with you?"

Danny nodded, although he was sure that his opinion did not truly matter to the man, that he'd call the doctor regardless of Danny's opinion, but responding made him feel like it was still his decision.

Danny didn't know how Stark had done it, because he didn't have a pager and he hadn't pressed any buttons, but soon there was a knock at the door and the doctor was poking his head in.

"Hello," he said, closing the door behind him. "I hear we had a little incident." the way the man spoke was demeaning, and it grated on Dannys nerves. Reminded him a bit too much of Ajax.

"Yeah," Stark replied. "I'm not sure what happened, but the kid freaked out and started ripping at his stitches." the doctor nodded, humming in a way that Danny guessed was meant to be reassuring. It wasn't. If anything, the humming felt ominous. Threatening. "If you could redo them, that would be great."

"Of course, Mr. Stark." The doctor sat next to Danny, who shrank away from him. Where was Wade? "How are you feeling, son?"

'Don't call me son.' he wanted to say. Instead, he shrugged. Wade was supposed to be here, where was he?

"Alright, I'm going to give you a little more morphine and fix these stitches, and then you should sleep, okay?" Danny shrugged again. Not like he had much of a choice, anyway. The doctor grabbed another needle, carefully filling it with the pain killer, and Danny hunched his shoulders up to his ears.

He wanted his mom, or Jazz, or his Dad, but they were back home, and Wade wasn't here. He hadn't promised, though, so Danny couldn't fault him. He probably wouldn't want anything to do with a traumatized child either. His thoughts drifted to Dani as he felt the doctor grab his arm gently and insert the needle. She was traumatized, and he'd sent her off to fend for herself. She was just a kid, less than a year old, even if she didn't look it. He should look for her when he got home. Make sure that she was alright.

Danny didn't so much as flinch when the doctor started to clean his chest, or even when he stitched it back up. He felt floaty. He wondered what his friends and family were doing. Were they okay? He'd been gone so long, what if a ghost attacked when he wasn't there? Sure, there was Valerie, but what if she got hurt? And Sam, Tucker, and his family were all fully capable of protecting themselves, but what if something happened that they needed him for?

He drifted off to sleep on anxiety ridden thoughts of his friends and family dying because he wasn't there to save them.

* * *

Note

* * *

The first iphone was released in 2007, before that phones had a physical keyboard. Early tablets look ridiculous, and were fairly expensive. The first ipad was released in 2010, but there were 'tablets' long before that (1987 was the first tablet, the 'Linus Write-Top'). the show Danny Phantom was released, and presumably takes place, in 2004. Just for some context.


	22. Chapter 22

Peter landed haphazardly on top of his apartment building, breathing heavily and still trying to shake off the remnants of the adrenaline rush. He lay on the roof for a few minutes, just letting his breathing even out. He breathed out a sigh and let his eyes slip shut. They snapped open less than a minute later.

"Mr. Stark!" how could he have forgotten about him? The Iron Man suit was non-functioning, and he'd just _left_ him there with a man that made Peter's spider-sense ring like the world was ending!

"Would you like me to call Mr. Stark, Peter?" Karens voice was soothing, and Peter relaxed minutely.

"Yes please, Karen." the ringing of the phone filled his mask, and Peter sat in tense silence as he waited for it to be picked up. Mr. Stark rarely missed his calls anymore, So when the call went to voicemail Peter felt a rush of panic. Then he remembered that the suit was _completely_ offline. Powered down, non-functioning. Whatever the other teen had hit Mr. Stark with had destroyed the suits circuitry to the point that Peter suspected that it couldn't be fixed.

Peter asked Karen to call a second time, and again it rang through and went to voicemail. Should he go back to the warehouse? No, that was a terrible idea, that man, Deadpool, would probably kill him if he came back. Okay. so, not back to the warehouse. Maybe Mr. Stark was on his way home?

"Karen?" he asked.

"Yes, Peter?"

"Can you send a message to my phone when Mr. Stark is safe? Back home, or at the Labs, I mean."

"Of course, Peter." Peter breathed a sigh, then pulled himself to his feet. School was out for the summer, so usually he'd stay out a bit longer to patrol, but right now all he wanted to do was sleep off the adrenaline crash. And maybe talk to Ned about meeting the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Ned would _flip_.

Peters stomach growled as he pulled himself in through his bedroom window, and he groaned. He didn't get any of the pizza! Okay, so Deadpool hadn't ordered it for him, but there was no way that Deadpool and the teenager could finish that many pizza's on their own, and Peter was _hungry_. Not that he wanted to eat pizza provided by a man that dangerous, but it would have been convenient.

Peter pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a loose T-shirt before heading into the kitchen, leaving his suit in a heap on the floor. He'd pick it up later, preferably before Aunt May got home. He made himself a sandwich and plopped onto the couch, digging out his phone and flipping through Twitter. The sandwich wasn't enough, but dinnertime wasn't that far away, and the sandwich would tide him over until then.

His phone buzzed in his hand, and he nearly dropped it on his face, only catching it because his fingers went sticky. It was a message from Karen, simply stating 'Mr. Stark has entered the building.' he giggled a little bit at the phrasing. No! Now was not the time for jokes.

'_thx kare_' he texted back. Then he pulled up Mr. Starks contact and hit 'call'. The phone rang. And rang. Just before the final ring, Mr. Stark answered the phone.

"_Hey kid, you alright?_" Mr. Stark asked, before Peter could even say anything.

"I'm fine, are you fine? I'm so sorry I just left you there like that!"

"_It's fine, kid. Deadpool didn't even do anything. Well, he made me eat pizza with him, but that was it._" Peter's relief felt tangible, and then he registered Mr. Starks words.

"You got pizza?! Aw man, I didn't get any!" he whined. It was so unfair that Peter was sitting at home worried for him, and he was just off eating pizza!

"_Peter, it wasn't a pizza party, I was trying to get the kid medical attention._" Peter could vaguely make out the sound of FRIDAY in the background before Mr. Stark spoke again. "_Oh my god._"

"What?" Peter bolted upright. There was something wrong, what was happening?" "Mr. Stark? Are you okay?"

"_I'm fine, I'm fine. Just… hey Peter?_"

"Yeah?" his heart was still beating just a bit too fast. "What's up?"

"_If you ever see Deadpool again,_" Mr. Stark paused and took a shaky breath before continuing. "_If you ever see Deadpool again, promise me you'll run the other way?_"

"Um…"

"_Please?_"

"Okay, I can do that… but uh, why?"

"_I don't think you want to know, but I'll tell you later if you ask. Just… I have to go._" The phone clicked off, and Peter lowered it from his face. The front door clicked open moments later, and Peter tilted his head over the back of the couch until he could see Aunt May, upside down, closing the door.

"Peter, don't do that, the blood's going to go to your head." Aunt May said, and Peter giggled, sitting back upright and swiveling instead.

"How was your day?" he asked, grinning.

"Oh, you know. Pretty much the same as always. What about you?"

"It was a day." Aunt May hummed in response, heading into the kitchen and grabbing a cup of water.

"Was it a good day?"

"It wasn't bad. What's for dinner?" Peter redirected. He didn't really want to talk about today yet, still trying to figure out how he felt about everything. He'd talk to Ned about it later, anyway. No use worrying the Aunt.

"Oh, I don't know. We still have some chinese in the fridge. How about we just do leftovers tonight?" Peter hummed.

"Sure, we could do that." he said.

They sat down together a bit later, Aunt May talking about her day, and Peter making sure he laughed in the right places, even if it wasn't always funny. They finished dinner, and before Aunt May could even pick up her own plate Peter grabbed it.

"I'll do the dishes tonight, you look pretty tired." He offered. Aunt May smiled at him.

"Thanks honey. Are you going out patrolling tonight yet?" Peter shook his head.

"Nah. I was thinking I might hang out with Ned tomorrow, and I want to be awake for that."

"Okay. well, I'm going to go to bed then. I have an early morning shift tomorrow. Goodnight"

"Night, Aunt May!" Peter called after her as she headed for the hall. He set the plates on the counter and began filling the sink.

"Peter!" Aunt May called. His head snapped up. Even though she didn't sound panicked, and he didn't sense danger, that didn't mean there wasn't any! "Pick up your suit!"

* * *

Deep breath. Line up the shot. Wait for the target. **{Do you think the kid likes mexican?}** Focus. [_I don't think it particularly matters _what _the kid likes, because we'll never be seeing him again. Not if we can help it._] An arm swung into view as the target gestured, but he was still out of sight of the window. **{Waaade! He's being mean again!}**

"Do you two ever shut the fuck up?" Wade shifted, adjusting his grip on the gun. There was a rock digging into his hip. He ignored it. [_you know we don't. Now tell this lunatic that we're staying far, far away from the kid._] **{nooooo! I want to cuddle him!}** "We _are_ staying away from the kid."

His target finally stepped into view of the window, and Wade pulled the trigger. Blood splattered the wall and the woman that the target had been talking to jerked back and screamed. Not that Wade could hear it, with how far away he was. **{she's kinda cute with the red freckles.}** [_Blood splatter, you mean._] Wade quickly packed up his gun and stood, stretching out the cramps that had disappeared the moment he moved.

"We've already traumatized her, no need to make it worse."

Wade shot a quick text to Weasel, which read '_Trgt dwn, got n e more job?_' [_your spelling is atrocious, it's a wonder that man can even understand you._] "If he can understand me than it isn't that bad." Wade skipped down the hill to the parking lot, where a cab was waiting for him. His phone buzzed, and he checked it.

'_You've p much cleared the list at this point. U coming by soon?_' Wade threw open the cab door, and then collapsed on the seat, throwing his gun case in before him. The cab driver flinched.

'_may as well. miss me?_'

"How did the job go, sir?" The cabbie asked, voice shaking.

"Like shootin' fish in a barrel, my good man. Now, to the City!" [_which city, dumbfuck?_] **{if we're picking cities, I vote NYC. We can go visit the kid!}** "_Not_ New York." The cabbie laughed awkwardly, and then they were on the road.


	23. Chapter 23

Danny was going to strangle Stark. No, seriously, he was going to _strangle_ the man. It had taken a few days for Danny to start feeling present again, but the three meals a day and steady access to water had helped immensely. The only downside to his new prison was the white walls and the infuriating man that seemed to spend half the day trying to get Danny to talk to him. Well, communicate. After the whole 'tablet' incident Stark had handed Danny a notebook and a pen, and then started asking stupid questions.

Questions like "Who are your parents, buddy?" or "do you know where you live?" and "Is there anyone you want us to contact for you, pal?" as well as the ever infuriating "What's your name, kiddo?" Danny had written 'fuck you' in the journal and thrown it at Starks head, but the questions hadn't stopped. They continued, day after day, and the only reason Danny hadn't tried to strangle the man yet is that he always brought food with him. Good food, too.

Today, though, Danny had just thrown the journal at the mans head after another "Can you tell me your parent's names?" and Stark hadn't given it back yet. Which annoyed Danny more, somehow. Not that he needed it. He figured out a couple days ago that his voice was back, but he still hadn't said a thing to Stark.

"Look, buddy," Stark said after a long moment of staring at the journal while Danny glared at him "I'm just trying to help. I'm sure you've seen me on the news, you know I'm a hero." Danny raised an eyebrow at the word hero. "But I can't help you if you don't let me. Just, give me something, kid." and then he held the journal out to Danny again.

Danny took it tentatively, studying the mans face as he did so. It was a little hard to read, but Danny thought he might have looked a little defeated, like this was his last ditch effort, and he had no more to give. Suddenly, Danny felt a little bad for the way he had been treating the man. Sure, he was arrogant, and he had kind of just assumed that everyone knew who he was, but he hadn't done anything even remotely hurtful towards Danny. He had even held his hands away from clawing at his chest. Danny sunk back into the many thick blankets that were piled on the bed, pretty much the only thing he had requested, and considered everything that he knew about the man.

It had taken a few days, but he figured out that the 'psychopath' that had left was Wade, which in Danny's mind was a bad thing, but Stark had clearly thought he was helping. He'd provided food, water, and pain killers. And, when Danny had written 'I'm cold' in the journal, Stark had given him what felt like every blanket in the building. Danny chewed on his lip as he thought. It couldn't hurt to at least give the man his name, right?

Stark sighed while he was still debating it. "Okay." he said, standing up as he spoke. "I'm sorry." Danny watched as he headed for the door, still trying to make a decision, He made up his mind just as the door opened. He didn't want to be alone with all the white and his thoughts, anyway.

"Danny." he said. His voice was rough from disuse, and almost inaudible, but Stark froze with his hand on the door anyway. Stark looked at him, eyes wide. Danny shifted uncomfortably. He really wished Wade was still here to provide comfort. The man was just so big, he reminded Danny of his dad a little that way, and was so warm that Danny couldn't feel cold in his presence.

"Is that short for Daniel?" Stark asked after a long moment of staring. Danny frowned more.

"Just call me Danny."

"Alright, Danny, then." Stark came back over and sat down. "What's your last name?"

"It doesn't matter, I don't think it would help you get me home, anyway." Stark frowned at Danny's words.

"Why not? If you're an orphan, that's fine. We can find your foster family, or a relative for you to stay with." Starks words were soft, clearly intended to be comforting. Danny hated it, kind of wanted to throw the journal at his head again.

"I'm not from around here." he said instead.

"That's fine, I'm sure we can find your family, even if you're not from the states." How dumb could this man be? Danny considered throwing the journal again.

"No, I'm not _from here_." he tried again. Okay, _maybe_ he was being obtuse on purpose, just a little, but Stark deserved it.

"Okay, I'm clearly missing something. What do you mean by 'here'?"

"_Here_," Danny made uncomfortable eye contact as he spoke. "As in this world, this dimension, whatever you want to call it. _I'm not from here._" Starks eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, as though trying to find the words to speak, before he closed his mouth and stared at Danny for a while. Danny pulled the blankets tighter around himself, as though that would guard him from the mans gaze.

"Do you know how to get back?" Stark finally asked. Danny snorted.

"If I knew how to get home, do you think I'd still be here?" the man cringed at Danny's words.

"So, wait. Do you even know who I am?" Danny threw the journal at Starks head.

* * *

Wade pushed open the door to Sister Margaret's, not the NY branch, and stepped inside. **{It's a little quiet in here, don't you think?}**[_huh. You're right, it _is _quiet in here._] "That's odd." Wade muttered to himself. He glanced around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. It was dark and dingy, just like normal, and there were rusty stains on the tables, floors, walls, and booths. Normal. [_yo numbnuts, where are the _people_?_] "oh, yeah. That's weird."

"What's weird?" Weasel asked, from his usual place behind the bar. Wade flinched. **{how did we not see him there?}**

"Hey Wease, where is everybody?" Wade asked. [_Good question. Solid._]

"I sent them home, so that they wouldn't _murder_ you the second you stepped through that door." Weasel was glaring at Wade. **{Why would they murder us?}**[_you mean besides the fact that they're all trained killers? Hmm, I don't know._]**{there's no need to be rude, you know?}**

"Why would they kill me?" Wade asked, flopping onto one of the bar stools across from Weasel.

"Oh, I don't know." Weasels voice was flat. **{he sounds kind of mad. Do you think he's mad at us?}**[_I don't know who _else _he would be mad with. We're the only ones here._] "Maybe it's because you've cleared the majority of the high paying jobs and there's table scraps left for the rest of them?!" **{oh, he's definitely mad.}**

"Well, I don't see what _your_ problem is. You get half the pay no matter _who_ takes the job." [_oh, good idea, antagonize him. That'll end well_]

"My _problem_, Wade, is that you disappeared for a month to go chase down some Weapon X offshoot, and then you come back and clear my hit list! Now the rest of the mercs are threatening me with bodily harm, all because you're having some sort of existential crisis!" **{cut his hand off! He's being **_**mean**_**!}** Deadpool pulled a knife and slammed it into the countertop.

"What does that have to do with me?" Weasel had reeled back, shocked.

"Wade," Weasels jaw was tense while he spoke, his eyes glued to the knife in his counter.[_we're scaring him_]**{let him be scared. He's a pussy.}** "If you kill me, who's going to organize your jobs for you?" Deadpool tilted his head.

"I've been in the merc business long before you were around, pal. I know how to get my own contracts. So, why should I care that the other mercs are annoyed with you?" Weasel swallowed audibly.

"They're not annoyed with me," **{His voice is shaking.}** "they're annoyed with you. But it's also common knowledge that you're unkillable, so they're threatening _me_, to try to get to you."

[_well, that wouldn't work._] Deadpool burst out laughing.**{the only thing that would accomplish is damaging their own link to clients!}** Deadpool slammed his fist into the counter and laughed harder. [_hey. Are we actually going to kill our only friend, or are we just threatening him because we're insecure?_] Wade stopped laughing abruptly and lifted his head from the counter where it had dropped to, to look at Weasel again. Weasel was eyeing him like he was a rabid dog. Wade cleared his throat.

"That's a terrible plan on their part. If they killed you the only thing they would accomplish would be burning their best contact in the merc world." Wade pulled his knife from the counter, ignoring Weasels flinch, and resheathed it. "So what did you actually want to talk about, anyway?"

"You've been really off since you got back. I'd kind of like to know what happened, and also, I think it would be good for you to take a break." Wade tilted his head back and whined. **{Do we **_**have**_ **to?}**[_no, and I'd really rather we didn't, but the idiot's going to tell him anyway._]

They were right. "Fine," Wade grumbled. "But you can't judge me." He pointed a finger at Weasel for emphasis.

"I'm always judging you." Weasel said as he smacked Wade's finger out of his face.

Wade grumbled more, before he started talking, telling Weasel whatever he thought might be relevant. [_oh, so we're _not _telling him everything, then?_]**{Do we ever?} **Just enough to answer his questions, Wade thought.


	24. Chapter 24

Snow swirled around Danny hypnotically, easing some tension in his chest that he was just barely aware of. A small smile settled onto his face as he looked around the endless expanse of snow and ice, all of it a pure white that made him ache with longing. He shivered slightly at the cool breeze, and sucked in a sharp breath at the chill. The cold made his throat burn, and the smell of chemicals filled him with anxiety. He looked around, hoping to let the ice and snow calm him, but instead all he saw was white walls.

Footsteps approached him and Danny swung his head in their direction. Out of the darkness Ajax emerged, that same grin stretching his face wide. Danny reeled back away from him, but something caught on his legs and stopped him from moving. Ajax laughed.

"Oh, no need to struggle. You can't get away from me." Ajax's eyes glowed red as he reached out a clawed hand and plunged it into Danny's chest, gripping his core and squeezing until his chest felt like it was going to burst. "After all, I'm right here with you." Danny screamed as Ajax pulled his core from his chest.

Bright white light burned his eyes as he threw himself backwards, away from Ajax, the hold on his legs giving away as he went intangible. Ajax continued to grin at him, crushing the green dripping core in his hands and Danny threw himself through the nearest wall. The floor dropped out beneath him and he fell. A short, surprised, yelp pulled itself from his mouth as he fell, and the impact with the ground startled him into consciousness.

Danny stared up at the sky and pulled in several deep breaths as his heart calmed from it's staccato beat into a more even rhythm. Once his heart was calm enough he sat up and looked around him. Gravel crunched under him as he moved, and the steadying hand that he set on the ground for balance was in a puddle of dubious origins. He was in an alley.

Danny breathed in deeply again, wrinkling his nose at the sharp scent of pee and garbage. He lifted his hand out of the puddle and wiped it on his pants. He didn't even want to know what it might be, if it wasn't water. He stood on unsteady feet and started walking. As bad as the alley smelled, he supposed it wasn't as bad as the chemical smell of the medical room that he'd been staying in.

Danny couldn't stay there anymore, even if Stark, Tony, was trying to help him. The man was infuriating, and continued to insist that Danny couldn't leave the med room until his chest was healed. Beyond that, the information that Danny was from another dimension caused a fascination in the man that made Danny uncomfortable.

It didn't take much walking before Danny was confronted with a wall. _Wonderful,_ he thought _a dead end, just what I needed._ He turned around and walked back in the other direction, grumbling to himself under his breath. The other end of the alley opened up to a busy street, and he stepped onto it tentatively, only to immediately collide with a man that wasn't looking where he was going. They both stumbled back, and the man dropped his phone. Danny looked up and cringed as he was met with Tony's wide eyes.

Danny froze, and then forced what he hoped was a convincingly innocent smile. Tony scowled at him.

"I thought I told you to stay in bed?" Tony was the first to speak, and Danny flinched back a little at the hard tone.

"In my defense, I didn't mean to?" it came out more questioning then he wanted it to. He toed the ground with his bare foot, eyes catching on the bandages, which were starting to stick to his chest. Tony sighed, and Danny's head snapped back up at the sound.

"Alright, kid, let's get you back in bed." Tony reached for his arm, probably to help him into the building, and panic flared in Danny's chest.

"No!" Danny smacked Tony's hand away from him and stumbled back. Tony's eyebrows shot up. "I… I mean… I... I don't have to do what you tell me, you're not my dad!"

"Kid, you're still injured, you should really be in bed right now."

Danny could feel his eyes burn green as panic bubbled in his chest. He couldn't go back there! Not to the white room and the chemicals. Despite the panic he grit his teeth and snarled at Tony, who took a shocked step back.

"You can't make me go back there!" his voice wavered as he spoke, and Tony flinched.

"Okay, okay!" Tony held his hands up placatingly. "We won't go back to the med bay," Danny felt some of the panic bleed away, and he knew his eyes had faded back to blue. He continued to glare. "How about we get you some shoes and a shirt instead, and I'll find you a better place to stay. Does that sound good?"

Danny thought about it for a moment. Tony was safe, he didn't feel like Wade would have left him alone with the man so long if he wasn't. Danny nodded sharply, and Tony breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

May Parker breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind her after a very long day at work. She enjoyed being a nurse, really she did, but some days were harder than others, no matter your job. Peter wasn't back from Neds yet, though, so she had the house to herself and fully intended to take advantage of that quiet time.

May grabbed a snack from the kitchen as she set the kettle on it's base to boil, and then she dug out her stash of bath bombs from the linen closet. It wasn't often that she would indulge herself like this, but today she felt she needed it. She set out her bath stuff on the bathroom counter and headed back into the kitchen to make her tea. Just as she finished pouring the water into her mug there was a knock on the door. She sighed. Hopefully that was just old Ms. London from down the hall to borrow another cup of sugar. Of course, that old Parker luck ensured that it wasn't.

When May looked through the peephole she saw Tony Stark standing there, sunglasses, smarmy grin and all. She grit her teeth. First Peter had been off all week, and now Tony Stark was at her door. If she was lucky, this wouldn't take long and she could go take her bath in peace.

May opened the door just as Stark was raising his hand to knock again, fully ready to chew him out for interrupting her day. She froze when she saw the teenager standing next to him in a baggy sweatshirt, pajama pants and flip-flops. The kid looked dead on his feet, bags under his eyes, skin pale and sweaty, black hair greasy and hanging in his face, and shivering subtly. She could have strangled Stark when he spoke.

"I have a favor to ask." He said. May sighed through gritted teeth. It looked like she wasn't getting that relaxing afternoon after all.

"Come in." she said. "Would you like something to drink? I've just boiled some water if you would like some tea."


	25. Chapter 25

Danny sat uncomfortably on the couch in the tiny apartment, fiddling with the hot mug in his hands. After Tony had gotten him some clothes, which was putting it loosely as far as he's concerned, he'd taken him to an apartment complex. The woman who had answered the door had looked tired, and like Tony was the last person that she'd wanted to see today, but she'd invited them in regardless, and now Tony and the woman, who had introduced herself as May, were in the kitchen talking about him quietly. Even if they were being quiet, the apartment was so small that Danny could still hear them plenty clearly.

"Let me get this straight," May was saying. "You have an injured, traumatized child with superpowers from another dimension, and your first thought was that you should dump him on _me_?" Danny cringed into himself. Of course May wouldn't want to look after him, she seemed like she had enough on her plate as it was.

"...Yes?" Tony said slowly. He sounded cowed, and Danny looked up from his mug to watch them. This apartment was pretty small, it kind of reminded him of Valeries place. May set her mug on the table in front of her and rested her elbows on the table as she put her head in her hands. He could see her lips moving and imagined that she was probably muttering to herself.

"Fine." She said eventually. "It's not like I don't have enough to stress about with one kid, let's add another." she sounded annoyed, but the mention that she already had a kid made him feel a little less like he was going to be a burden on her.

"I'm sorry-" Tony started, but May interrupted him before he could finish.

"No, by all means, drop all your problems on the common citizen," Danny watched guilt flash through Tony's eyes as May spoke. "Just know that I fully expect you to cover costs for this. I'm not rich like you are, Stark. Now get out of my house."

"Yes Ma'am. I'll have some money transferred into your account by tomorrow!" And just like that, Danny was alone with another new person.

Danny watched as May sighed into her hands again before she picked up her mug and made her way over to the couch. She sat down a full seat away from him and tucked her right foot up under herself. They stared at each other for a long moment before she spoke again.

"How are you feeling, Danny?" She asked.

"Um…" How was he supposed to respond to that? He pulled his knees up to his chest. "I'm a little cold." He eventually settled on as a response. May smiled warmly at him.

"Alright. Do you want to go take a nap, or would you rather be awake for a bit longer to settle in?" Did he want to nap? The last time he slept didn't go so well, but he did feel kind of safe here. Better than the Med Room at any rate. Everything here was warm muted colours.

"I…" he started to say, then stopped. He really didn't know _what_ he wanted to do. He was tired, eyes sticky, but he didn't want to sleep. His silence seemed to be answer enough though, and May gave him another warm smile before she set her mug on the coffee table and stood up.

"I'll get you a blanket and you can just hang out on the couch for now, okay?" he nodded, and soon he was wrapped in a thick blanket and drinking warm tea. It helped with the cold a lot more than he had expected. May sat next to him on the couch and watched him drink his tea for a while.

"How much of the conversation did you hear?" May asked after a while of just watching him. He jumped when she spoke, having gotten used to the silence.

"I wasn't trying to eavesdrop." he said defensively after a moment. May laughed.

"Oh, of course not. I'm not mad. I was just curious. You know, my nephew Peter often hears things he doesn't mean too as well." Danny relaxed a little more. He liked May, she reminded him a bit of Jazz. "So, how much _did_ you hear?"

"Most of it, I think." May hummed a little in response, encouraging him to keep talking even though it hurt his throat a bit. He drank more tea before he continued. "I'm sorry if I'm intruding." he watched May from the corner of his eye as he spoke, staring into his almost empty mug.

"Oh, you're not intruding," Danny didn't quite believe her, but she kept talking. "Really, it was Stark that was intruding. That man needs to learn that he can't have everything that he wants. Or, I suppose it's more like he needs to learn that not everything is centered around him." Danny laughed a little at that.

"Yeah, he didn't even tell me his name until I told him that I'm from another dimension." May sighed.

"Of course he didn't. I bet that self-centered ass just assumed you would know who he is." Danny found himself smiling a little as May spoke. He nodded in agreement to her words and set down his now empty mug. "You know, for a certified genius who went to MIT at 15, he sure is an idiot sometimes." Danny felt his jaw drop.

"MIT? _Fifteen?_" May laughed at his shock.

"I take it that's still impressive where you're from?" Danny stared at May with wide eyes.

"Of course it is! I'm sure that would be impressive in any dimension!" He exclaimed. May laughed again.

"Oh, I wouldn't make any assumptions. You know what they say about that, don't you?" Danny shook his head, and May grinned. "They make an ass out of 'U' and 'Me'." Danny snorted, and Mays grin stretched even wider. Danny felt sleepy and relaxed, a feeling of safety settling deep into his chest.

Danny and May kept talking, May doing an excellent job of keeping the conversation light. Danny's eyes eventually began to stick every time he blinked, and his responses got shorter and shorter until he was just drowsily listening to May talk. Eventually he blinked and didn't open his eyes again, letting May's voice wash over him and humming occasionally to let her know he was still listening.

* * *

Peter trudged tiredly up the stairs to the apartment. Spending the day with Ned was well and good, but he hadn't been sleeping well all week and he was exhausted. He didn't want Ned to know that, though, and as far as he was concerned they didn't spend enough time together in the first place, so he'd gathered all his energy to act normal around his friend instead of like a tired zombie.

Despite how tired he was, though, he still felt jittery and wanted to do a patrol before bed. He would have gone on patrol straight after Neds house, but he had made Peter promise to leave his suit at home so that they could just hang out together, no distractions. So, before Peter could go on patrol, he had to head back to the apartment to get his suit. Aunt May was supposed to be home early today, too, so he thought it might be nice to stop for dinner before patrol. It was almost 6 in the evening, and he'd already eaten at Neds since they had dinner at 5 sharp but, as always, he was still hungry. Besides, if he didn't spend enough time with Ned, he spent even less with time Aunt May since she was either at work or asleep.

It didn't take long to reach the door to their apartment while he was lost in thought, and he dug his keys out of his pocket and pushed the door open after unlocking it. He kicked it shut behind him and dropped his keys on the table next to the door.

"Aunt May!" he called into the quiet apartment. "I'm home!" Aunt May appeared from the hallway as he toed his shoes off.

"Hey, Pete," she said, talking quieter than normal. "Tony was over today." Peter tilted his head in confusion.

"Yeah?" he asked. "Was it something important?" he hoped not. If Tony was talking to his Aunt instead of him, though, that always made him worried.

"Oh, only a bit. He dropped off a guest." A guest? Peter wondered who it could be. "I hear Spider-Man helped save him from a Hydra facility last week. Of course, I'd always rather hear that from Spider-Man himself than Stark." Peter felt his face heat with embarrassment.

"I was going to tell you," He blurted.

"It's okay if you didn't want to, Pete. I just hope you're talking to someone." Aunt May said as she wrapped Peter in a hug. "Did you have fun at Neds?" Over Aunt Mays shoulder Peter saw the teenager he'd help save from Hydra poke his head out of the hall.

"Of course I did. Are you going to introduce me to our guest before dinner?" he asked.

"Well, Danny's sleeping right now," Aunt May started. Peter saw a slight smile pull at, presumably, Danny's face as Aunt May spoke.

"Not anymore." Danny said. Aunt May squeaked as she spun around. "Hi, I'm Danny." Danny held a hand out to Peter.

"I'm Peter, May's nephew." Peter shook the offered hand as he spoke, and watched as Danny's eyes narrowed briefly before he shrugged.

"Are you alright, Danny?" Aunt May asked. "Did you sleep well enough?"

"Better than I was. Did someone say dinner, though? I'm kind of really hungry." Danny scratched at his chest as he spoke.

"Oh, of course! Do you want me to order something in, or would you prefer a home cooked meal?" Aunt May faced Danny as she spoke, and Peter mouthed 'Take Out' at Danny behind her back.

"Oh, a home cooked meal sound's just lovely." Danny made direct eye contact with Peter as he spoke. Peter facepalmed, but quickly dropped his hands as Aunt May turned back to face him.

"Oh, Peter, Danny doesn't have very many clothes, and I was thinking he's so small that some of your old stuff should fit him. Why don't you two go and see about finding Danny some clothes while I make dinner?" Peter forced the sweetest smile that he could.

"Of course, Aunt May." Danny followed Peter back down the hall to his room. "She's a terrible cook, you know." Peter said conversationally as he opened his closet. Danny hummed noncommittally and Peter heard him flop onto the bed behind him. Peter was glad that Danny had decided to lay down instead of follow him to the closet when he noticed his Spider-Suit sitting in a clump on the floor. Peter grabbed a hoodie from a hanger and dropped it on top of his suit to hide it from view.

"Unless the food she cooks attacks you than it's still better than my moms cooking." Danny said, tone nostalgic. Peter choked on his spit. "Besides, your face was kind of hilarious." Peter stood up with some of his old favourite T-shirts that he'd grown out of after the spider bite.

"Sorry, no, go back to bringing food to life." Peter said as he dropped the clothes on the bed next to Danny. Danny grinned at him, scratching absently at his chest again, where Peter could see bandages poking out of the sweatshirt he wore.

"Yeah, Mom's an amazing scientist, but she should really stick to baking." Was all Danny said. Peter went back to digging in his closet to find pants that would fit Danny.

"What kind of science does your mom do?" Peter asked. Maybe something with biology? That would make sense if she could bring things to life. Peter glanced over his shoulder when Danny didn't answer for a while. Danny stared at the bunk above his head, a small frown on his face and still scratching at his chest. Peter wondered if he should maybe stop him from doing that. "Danny?" Danny sighed, frown deepening.

"Paranormal sciences." Danny said, so quietly that Peter was sure a normal human wouldn't have heard him.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that." Peter said, trying to keep his tone even as he dropped a couple of pants onto the bed next to the shirts. Dannys face went a little bit pink, and he cleared his throat.

"She has a degree in Paranormal Sciences." Danny said, this time at a normal volume. "It's okay, you can laugh, everyone else does." Danny continued when Peter just stared at him.

"I'm not going to laugh," Peter said. "I'm just trying to wrap my head around the concept. Anyway, do you want to try on some of these and see if they fit you? I'll leave the room so you have some privacy." Danny shrugged.

"I'm kind of comfortable right now, so not really." Danny stretched his hands above his head and Peter sat on the bed next to him. It was silent for a long minute, Danny staring at Peter through barely open eyes and Peter staring at the peak of red from his spider suit in the closet. He hoped Danny wasn't the nosy type.

"How long are you staying?" Peter asked when the silence became too much for him. Danny's eye's opened all the way.

"I don't know. Until Tony finds a way to send me home, I guess." Peter squinted his eyes at the mischievous look in Danny's eyes.

"How far is home from here? I'm sure Mr. Stark has more than enough to get you home no matter how far it is."

"Unless he can just buy a dimensional portal with the correct coordinates to send me home, than I really doubt that. Good news is, I hear he's some kind of super genius." Peter's Jaw dropped and he was sure that his eyes were wide as saucers. Danny snickered.

"You're from another dimension?" Peter whispered just as May yelled for them down the hall.

"Boy's! Dinner's Ready!" Danny patted Peter on the head as he stood up.

"Yup!" Danny said cheerfully as he trotted out the door and down the hall. Peter sat on the bed for a moment trying to process all that information before he followed him. He wondered if Hydra had notes on interdimensional travel that could be used to help Danny get home. Surely that was where Mr. Stark would start.


	26. Chapter 26

Danny decided that Peter's fascination with him was far preferable to Tonys. More innocent, maybe, or perhaps the fact that Peter was the same age as him. Whatever it was, it was less intense. Danny could tell all through dinner that Peter wanted to ask him questions, but he held back.

After they had finished eating the slightly burnt grilled cheese and unevenly heated tomato soup, May asked Peter to do the dishes. Once Peter was distracted she pulled Danny aside and asked if she could have a look at his chest. Danny, oddly, found that he didn't mind may seeing the scar that now ran the length of his torso. May looked at the scar briefly, though with a critical eye, and declared that it was healing well. She then asked if Danny wanted a shower, which he declined, and helped him rebandage his chest.

The thought of a shower, as much as Danny actually wanted one, made him feel like someone was watching him, just waiting for him to drop his guard. He didn't voice this to May, but she seemed to understand something of it anyway, and instead of pushing him to have a shower, which he knew he badly needed, she told him to go lay down in Peters room. Which he did gratefully.

The lower bunk was clearly Peters, but Danny didn't particularly care as he flopped down into the soft pillows and wrapped himself in the warm blankets. Danny breathed in deeply and relaxed into the bed. Down the hall he could hear the clatter of dishes in the sink, and could just barely make out the sound of Peters voice and the lighter pitch of Mays.

It was different from home, where Jazz would already be asleep, or at least in bed, by the time that he got home. Different from knowing that his parents were in the living room watching news from the static of the TV, or knowing that they were in the lab from the absence of their voices. He could hear, from the apartment next to him, the sound of a couple arguing over something. On the other side he heard a baby start to cry.

Danny rolled over and stared at the bunk above him, visible in that slightly green off-colour that everything was in the dark since the accident. Danny heard footsteps in the hall outside his room, the soft thud of feet on carpet so different to the cold clack of shoes on tile. He closed his eyes. How long had he been laying here?

"Goodnight, Peter." May's voice said.

"Night Aunt May, I love you." Peter responded. The door clicked open and Danny could tell that light flooded the room from the hall by the way it shone through his eyelids.

"Larb you too!" Danny heard Peter make a squeak at Mays words, followed by May chuckling to herself as the door closed. The room was quiet for a long moment, and Danny wondered if Peter was staring at him.

Peter sighed before Danny heard him head to his closet, followed by the sounds of fabric rustling. Danny kept his eyes closed. It was dark, and Danny knew that Peter couldn't see in the dark like he could, but that didn't mean that Danny wanted to see Peter changing into his pajamas. He'd seen enough that one time he'd accidentally walked in on Tucker changing. The memory brought a small smile to his face, before Danny remembered that he was in a different dimension, and it was entirely possible that he would never get home. He might never see his friends or family again.

"Hey Karen." Peter said, nearly causing Danny to jump out of his skin. Wait, Karen? Wasn't that the name of Spider-Mans AI? "Sorry, I got a little caught up having dinner with Aunt May and our new guest." Danny heard Peter walk over to the window and slide it open. "No, he's sleeping right now. Stole my bed."

Was Peter Sneaking out the window? Was Peter Spider-Man? No, that would be ridiculous. Karen was a fairly common name, and Peter was probably sneaking out to see her, talking to her on the phone or something. He hadn't heard Peter making a phone call, though, and the odds seemed too high. Danny opened his eyes to check, to see if Peter _was_ Spider-Man, but by the time he'd decided to do that the window was shut and Peter was long gone. Danny resolved to stay up and see if Peter was Spider-Man when he came back.

Time dragged on, the sounds of the apartment fading out until he could only hear people on the street, some of them shouting, laughing. Sirens wailed in the distance, and the green tinted darkness weighed pretty heavily on Danny. His eyes got heavier after the first hour, so he let them close again. He shifted a few times in the bed, getting more comfortable. Danny didn't even realise that he'd fallen asleep until he heard Peter thunk against the wall and curse quietly.

Danny blinked his eyes open and hummed confusedly at the noise, sleep making his eyes stick together even as he opened them. "Oh shit! Sorry Danny, didn't mean to wake you up, I'm just, uh, going to the bathroom." Danny hummed an acknowledgement as the door opened and closed, settling in to go back to sleep, before he remembered that he was supposed to be seeing if Peter was Spider-Man.

Danny sat bolt upright in the bed, narrowly missing braining himself on the bunk above him, and looked around the room. Light was starting to bleed in through the window, indicating that It was dawn, and Danny marveled that he'd even slept that long without a nightmare, or even a memorable dream. The last time he'd had a dreamless sleep was… so far back that he couldn't really recall. After the accident, he knew, but beyond that he didn't know for sure. Certainly not since he came to this dimension.

He lay back down and waited for Peter to come back as the room got brighter and brighter. When Peter did come back, Danny noted that he looked exhausted. Dark circles under his eyes and that kind of foggy look to him that Danny remembered Jazz having whenever she pulled an all-nighter to study. Suspicious.

"I'm sorry," Peter said, when he noticed Danny looking at him. "I woke you up, didn't I?" Danny shrugged, hyper-aware of how dry his throat was when he even considered speaking. Peter shifted uncomfortably as Danny watched him. "Uhh… do you… want to get dressed? I can leave! Hey, how about I make, like, pancakes or something for breakfast? I usually just have cereal, but I'm sure we have a box of pancake mix somewhere!" Peter kept talking even as he left the room, shutting the door behind himself. "You get dressed, I'll make pancakes!"

Danny looked forward to the pancakes, even though he knew they were likely to be either burnt or undercooked. Too little sleep did not make someone a better cook, after all. Danny had many stress cooked breakfasts from Jazz as proof.

* * *

**{Boxed pancake mix is blasphemy.}** Wade swallowed his mouthful of perfectly cooked fluffy pancakes that had been doused in 100% canadian maple syrup. "Where did that come from?" He asked, shoving another overloaded forkful into his mouth and chewing. **{I don't know, but I felt like it needed to be said.}** [_pancake mix is perfectly acceptable if you can't make your own._] **{who the fuck can't handle fucking pancakes? There's like, maybe five ingredients!}** Wade turned up the volume on the TV and sunk back into the couch, attempting to drown out the voices at least a little bit. [_Maybe people who don't have the fucking ingredients! Not everyone has the money to buy a bag of flour, you know!_]

The volume on the tv was maxed out. The golden girls was playing full volume, but it wasn't quite enough to drown out the voices. **{a bag of flour does not cost **_**that**_ **much more than a box of pancake mix! And you can make way more pancakes with a full bag of flour than you can with box mix!}** [_Maybe people don't have time to make a full batch of batter from scratch!_] Wade giggled as, on screen, Dorothy verbally ripped Blanch a new one. He'd seen this episode before, but that just made it even better. Man, Bea Arthur was _da bomb._ **{oh, like it actually takes that much time to make pancakes! Just mix the dry ingredients ahead of time then!}**

Soon enough, all the pancakes that Wade had made, and there were a lot, were gone, and the voices were _still_ arguing over the merits of boxed mix versus from scratch. The episode ended and Wade leaned his head back on the couch. **{fine, I guess boxed pancakes are okay as long as you use real maple syrup on them.}** "I think we're all in agreement on that." **{I'm bored.}** Wade sighed. [_do you think we could make another attempt at the swimming pool full of blood idea?_] "Weasel said no killing for a week." **{I thought he said no jobs for a week?}** "oh and you want to go through the effort of vetting the client, and then following up to make sure the target actually deserves it? Fuck off."

[_hey, when's the last time we've seen Wolvey?_] A grin slipped onto Wades face. Logan was always great for some instant entertainment. Perfect for messing with. "Far too long, I think."

* * *

Matt crouched on a roof at the edge of Queens. Queens, of course, being where Spider-Man was spotted the most often. He needed to ask someone if that kid was okay, and there was no way anyone could convince him that asking Deadpool would be easier than finding and asking Spider-Man. There also wasn't any way that he could find out if Deadpool had brought the kid to a hospital, although it seemed unlikely that Tony could have convinced Deadpool to do something that Matt couldn't convince him to do.

He supposed he could ask Tony himself, but the man was kind of egotistical, and if Matt were honest, he wanted to check in on Peter as well. He would have done it sooner, but he was a little busy with the caseload at the firm, as well as reassuring Foggy that he didn't have to freak out and worry everytime Matt put on the suit, honestly. Although, Matt secretly appreciated the concern.

So, Queens. Spider-Man. Peter. It was 3 in the morning, the time when traffic was the lightest, and good children were in their beds at least attempting to sleep. But, there Peter was, swinging around Queens, doing a lap of yet another neighborhood, heart beat loud enough that Matt didn't have to struggle to pinpoint where he was. When Spider-Man swung past his perch, Matt took off after him, following silently along the roof.

"Peter," Came the slightly robotic sound of Peter's AI, Karen. "It is time for a snack break. Also, are you sure you're allowed to stay out so late just because there's no school?"

"Of course I'm allowed to stay out. It's called the school night protocol, not the weeknight protocol!" Matt smirked at the kids reply.

Sure, Matt's not about to encourage that behaviour, but it'd be mighty hypocritical of him to not at least find it amusing. Matt followed Peter as he landed on a rooftop, and waited until the kid had the mask raised and a bite of granola bar in his mouth before speaking.

"Hello, Peter." Matt said, secure in the knowledge that he and the kid were the only ones there. Peter choked on his granola as he spun around and started coughing, sloppy fighting stance dropping immediately as he bent over and tried to get his breath back. Matt carefully kept the smirk off his face, knowing that his cowl left his chin exposed. He didn't want the kid to know just how funny he found this.

"How do you know my name?" Peter asked as soon as he got his breath back, dropping back into a fighting stance that Matt immediately identified as self taught. The kids heart was jackrabbiting in his chest, sounding almost like it was trying to break through the poor kids ribs.

"I have enhanced hearing and your AI calls you by name." He answered, and then let a frown tug at his lips. "And drop that amateur fighting stance, will you? If I was here to fight, you'd already be laid out." Peter relaxed little, and then tensed as Matts words registered.

"Amateur? I'll have you know that I have spent _hours _perfecting this stance, thank you very much!" he sounded so offended that Matt actually had to take a deep breath to not burst out laughing.

"Kid, you're doing very well for someone with no formal training, but I've been learning how to throw a punch since I was 5, I think I know an amateur when I see one. Besides, this isn't what I wanted to talk about." Peter finally relaxed.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"You're close to Stark, right?" Matt sat on the roof as he spoke, settling in a way that he could move quickly if he needed to, but hoping to put Peter at ease by making himself smaller than the kid. Peter nodded, and finally let his hands drop to his sides, and his heartbeat slowed to what it had been before Matt showed himself. "Do you know what happened with the kid and Deadpool?"

"Oh! Yeah, I do!" Peter sounded excited as he spoke, and Matt relaxed a little himself, not that Peter would be able to tell. "Mr. Stark got him to Stark Labs, 'cause they have a pretty well stocked med bay there, and now he's living with me! Well, he has been for the last couple of days, anyway. Danny's a weird kid." Matt tilted his head at this information.

"Why would he be living with you? Why can't he go back to his family?" he asked. Of course, Matt understood that the kid, Danny, was a mutant, and it was possible that his family were of the anti-mutant sort, but why would Tony have Danny living with Spider-Man instead of the many other options that Matt could see, least of all being Danny continuing to stay with Stark.

"Oh, that's easy." Peter said. There was something… mischievous about the kids' tone. Matt frowned. "Danny's from another dimension and Mr. Stark didn't know where else to put him." Matt barely kept his jaw from dropping. Although, he supposed he couldn't be _too_ shocked. After all, with mutants and the amount of powers that they had, and how unreal some of those powers seemed, it wasn't too far of a stretch to say that other dimensions existed.


	27. Chapter 27

Peter left the impromptu meeting with Daredevil feeling light and happy. After DD had asked a few more questions about Danny's wellbeing he'd abruptly asked if Peter would like to have some formal combat training. At first Peter had been apprehensive. As far as Peter could tell, DD's only superpower was enhanced senses, and Peter had super strength. What if something went wrong and he seriously injured the man? He'd voiced these concerns to DD, who had hummed thoughtfully, and then said that he'd figure something out. And then Peter had watched as DD's head tilted to the side, and the man had run off without another word.

It was close to dawn for the third day in a row before Peter crawled in through the window. May had been on night shift tonight, and had been for the past week, so all Peter had to do was get home before her. Once Peter set his feet on the floor he did a sweep of the darkened room. He had learned after the Ned thing, after all. Danny was still asleep, face half buried in the pillows and facing away from the wall. Peter turned away and quickly scrambled into his pajamas. He balled his suit up and shoved it in a box on the top shelf of his closet.

Danny was still asleep after Peter was done, so he headed out to the living room, suppressing a yawn and ignoring the headache fuzzing his brain. He set the kettle to boil and dumped a packet of instant coffee in a mug, and then he pulled the carton of eggs out of the fridge. He turned around to go grab a bowl and nearly jumped to the ceiling. Danny was standing at the edge of the island, eyes watching him intently.

"Dude, what the heck?" Peter said, placing a hand on his chest to calm the frantic beating. How had Danny snuck up on him? Usually he could tell when someone was watching him!

"What's for breakfast?" Danny asked, instead of responding to Peter. There was a tiny uptick at the corners of his mouth.

"Oh, uh. I'm going to make scrambled eggs. How are you so quiet?" Peter grabbed the bowl that he needed, and then a fork to whisk the eggs with. The entire time he could see Danny watching him, but not a peep from his spider-sense to indicate it. Weird. How had he not noticed that his spider-sense didn't react to Danny before now? Danny shrugged.

"Must be because I'm a ghost." Peter laughed a little. Man, Danny's sense of humor was way weird. Danny hummed. "Can you show me where the towels are? I'd like to go take a shower." Peter paused with an egg still held above the bowl.

"Um, sure. Finally got tired of being greasy?" He asked, stepping around the island. He immediately wanted to punch himself when Danny's eye's got dark and he frowned.

"I figured that if I'm going to be here for years I might as well bathe every once in a while." Peter stopped halfway around the island.

"Years?" He asked tentatively. "I'm sure it won't take that long."

"My parents spent their lives building a portal, they'd worked on it since college." Danny said solemnly. "They finally got a working version when I was fourteen."

"Oh." was all Peter could say before he led Danny to the hall closet and handed him a towel. "Enjoy your shower."

"Thanks." the bathroom door clicked shut and Peter went back to the kitchen, where he made his coffee before he continued on the eggs. His mind was still stuck on what Danny had said.

Years. Danny expected to be stuck here for years because of how difficult portals were to build. But Hydra has a working portal. Peter almost dropped the bowl on the floor instead of the counter when the thought occurred to him. Hydra has a working portal. He shifted the eggs in the pan so they wouldn't burn. Had Mr. Stark thought about stealing the portal plans from Hydra? No, Peter knew how stubborn Mr. Stark was, he would want to prove he could build his own from scratch. And who's to say that Mr. Stark couldn't? Maybe Mr. Stark would be better at building a portal than Danny's parents, who were, in Danny's own words, Paranormal scientists.

Peter was pulled from his thoughts when the front door unlocked. "Good morning, Aunt May!" he called. She looked up from taking her shoes off.

"Oh, Peter, good morning. That smells wonderful." Peter smiled.

"How was work?" he asked. Aunt May sighed.

"Oh, exhausting." She sat down at the table as she spoke. "You know, I love this work, but the night shift always brings in the weirdos." Peter laughed, and went to scrape some eggs onto a plate for her. They stuck to the bottom of the pan and he remembered that he hadn't greased it before putting the eggs in the pan.

* * *

Danny would admit that he maybe should have taken May up on her offer for a shower his first night here, because the water running off of him was half brown. On the other hand, being able to see the large, raised, pink scar running the entire length of his torso made him feel… restless wasn't quite the right word, but it was the closest he could get. Jittery, maybe?

It was large and ugly and there was no way anyone would miss it if they saw him with his shirt off. The scar left from the GIW had also been raised, but it had been thin and mostly healed by the time he'd gotten home. It probably would have disappeared just like the rest of his injuries from ghost fighting. He would have been able to take his shirt off without anyone asking what had happened. This… there was no way he could think of that would hide it.

Danny absently scratched at it as he tilted his head back so that he didn't have to look at it. The water was cold and hot in turns, and if he fiddled with the knobs on the shower it just made it worse. He tried to focus on how uncomfortable the shower made him, and not what his chest looked like. He'd avoided looking at it during dressing changes for a reason. A sharp pain drew his attention back to his chest where his absent scratching had ripped open a half healed scab. He pulled his hand away from his chest and instead looked for soap or shampoo to wash his hair with. He grabbed the bottle of 2-in-1.

He showered as quickly as he could after he'd scratched his chest open, wanting to cover it again as soon as possible. He was drying off when he heard the front door open, followed by May's voice. He dressed quickly in a T-shirt that rubbed his chest annoyingly and a pair of jeans that were just a touch too loose. The smell of burnt eggs hit him when he walked into the kitchen.

Peter handed him a plate when he saw him, and they both sat down at the table with May, who looked exhausted. Peter looked equally exhausted, but Danny knew this was because he kept running around in his Spider-Man costume instead of sleeping. Danny wanted to ask him about it, but he didn't know if May knew or not, although, he wouldn't be surprised if she did, considering that Peter changed out of his Spider-Man costume in the same room as Danny without actually making sure that he was asleep.

They ate eggs in relative silence, Danny being the only non-tired person in the room, and then May went to bed. Danny stared at Peter as the other teen raised a mug of coffee to his mouth and practically inhaled it. Danny wanted to smack the mug out of Peters hands and tell him to go take a nap. He didn't, but he really wanted to. Instead, he opened his mouth to ask Peter about the Spider-Man thing, and abruptly closed it when he remembered what Jazz had said about wanting him to tell her that he was Phantom for himself. Peter looked at him.

"Were you going to say something?" Peter asked, and Danny scrambled to think of something that he could say.

"Umm, I haven't seen the city yet." and that is not what he wanted to say. Honestly, he'd rather stay here and mope, but too late now. "Would you be willing to, uh, show me around today?" Peter perked up in his seat, though, so Danny guessed it was a good option.

"Sure! I can show you all my favourite places!" Peter sounded super excited. "Oh! I should call Ned, he's my best friend, I'm sure you'll love him. We can show you around together!" Danny decided that Peter was kind of adorable when he was excited. Like a golden retriever.

* * *

Logan flashed a smile at the woman across the bar as she accepted the drink. She smiled back, said something to her friends, and then made her way over to where Logan sat.

"Hello, beautiful." Logan greeted her as she sat delicately on the stool next to him. Man was Logan ever glad for summer break. She giggled.

"Hello yourself, handsome," she replied. "What's a strong man like you doing at a place like this when he could be home with his girlfriend?" Logan grimaced.

"Ah, mourning her untimely death." he said bluntly. She reeled back.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

"Ah, you didn't know. All in the past anyway, eh?" Logan smiled sheepishly at her. He could recover this interaction and still take her to bed, he was sure of it. Her red lips parted to reply, her eyes briefly flickering over his shoulder. Her jaw dropped and her face paled. Logan frowned. "What's-" A heavy arm dropped across his shoulder.

"Hey Logan, long time no see!" An overly cheerful, painfully familiar voice chirped in his ear. The woman screamed as she ran away. "Rude." Logan turned his head.

"Wade." he said through gritted teeth. "Get your arm off my shoulder before I rip it off and shove it up your ass."

"Ooh, kinky." Wade said, dropping his arm as he spoke and holding his hands up non-threateningly. A smile was stretched across the cock-blocking bastards ground beef face. "So what have you been up to lately?" Logan resigned himself to dealing with his sort of not really friend.

"I've been on vacation. Which I was enjoying before you so rudely crashed it." He sniffed the air. Something about Wade's scent was off. His eyes narrowed. "What are you doing in Canada, anyway? I thought you and that Weasel guy were setting up shop in America." Wade laughed awkwardly and tugged the hoodie lower over his face.

"Oh, uh. Haha. so, you know Weapon X, right?" Logan felt his shoulders immediately tense.

"Should we be talking about this in a bar?" He interrupted before Wade could really get into a spiel.

"Uh, maybe not? Anyway, so, Weapon X, right?-"

"Wade, not here." Logan slapped a handful of twenties on the bar top, before he stood up and dragged Wade out of the bar by his sleeve.

"So Weapon X," Wade continued talking the minute the door closed, and Logan resisted the urge to stab him. "They were working with Hydra, right?"

"What?!" Logan paused in his speed walking towards his hotel to stare at Wade.

"I know, right? And I had to practically drag the information out of Wease! Anyway, Weapon X is working with Hydra, right? And obviously I can't let that go on! Shut up, I'm trying to talk!" Logan grabbed Wades arm again and continued to drag him to his hotel while trying to listen to what Wade was saying. If Weapon X was really working with Hydra, then they had a problem. Should he be contacting the professor? "So anyway, I tracked them down through the Hydra branches, and there they are! Dead center of New York City!" Logan clicked his hotel room door shut behind them and gave Wade his full attention.

"So, Hydra's hiding in this shooting range, right? Genius, really. Gunshots wouldn't be odd from one of those, wish I'd thought of it. I'm getting to that! Anyway, shooting range. So I get in, and I take out their guards, and there's this deafening scream! Like… uh. What that guys name? The one that screams real loud?"

"Sean?" Logan supplied.

"Sean? Sean?! Really, that's the guys name? Wow, sucks to be him. Anyway, I recover fairly fast, healing factor for the win! And I clear the facility. Like, everyone who wasn't dead was deaf, or just bleeding from their ears. It was carnage man, carnage! It was great." Logan wrinkled his nose. "So, we find the source of the scream, right?"

"We?" Logan interrupted.

"So get this: It's a kid!" Wade continued, completely ignoring that Logan spoke. "A kid, Logan! Anyway, weapon x is taken out again and Weasels not giving me any jobs so I thought I'd come bug you." Logan's eye twitched.

"Wade." He said.

"Yeah?"

"Was there a point to that story, or were you just wasting my time?" Wade's eyes widened and he shifted from foot to foot. Logan clenched his teeth.

"Uh… there might have been a point?" Logan rubbed his temples and took a deep breath. God, Wade stunk.

"Okay, what is the relevance of the kid?" he asked. It was odd. Wade didn't usually need this much prompting to speak.

"Oh, so DD and Spider-Man, Spider-Kid really, they helped me get the kid out of there, and then Ironman shows up at my safe house, and they're all telling me to get the kid medical attention. Uh, his chest was um… like, bleeding, everywhere. They cut him open! Like some sort of sick science frog!" Logan felt a little sick at the thought. They dissected a kid? He knew Weapon X was low, but not that low. "And the voices are all like 'Yeah, he's going to die because you're an incompetant idiot!' so I agree, and Stark takes us to his lab, and the kid's doing okay, I think. I don't know, really, 'cause Stark comes up to me when the kids asleep and he's all 'You can't stay here, I know you're a murderer!' and like, obviously you can't have a murderer around kids, right? But you guys let me around the students all the time, so I don't know what Starks deal is. Anyway, I left. Told him I'd kill him if he let the kid get hurt again."

That was… a lot to take in. Obviously Wade was somewhat on edge because he was worried about the kid, and hearing what had happened to the poor boy, Logan was worried too. But why was Wade bugging him about it? Usually the man would have disregarded whatever anyone else said and done what he wanted to anyway, and he clearly wanted to be around this kid.

"Hey Wade?" he said.

"Yeah?"

"If you're here, who's making sure that no one hurts the kid?" If Wade was going to seek a reason to follow a kid around, then Logan would provide one. After all, the only other option would be to let Wade crash his vacation, and that just wasn't right.


	28. Chapter 28

The walk to the Park was exhausting, but worth it. Danny liked Ned, even if he thought he was a bit weird. It was obvious that Peter and Ned shared everything, like Danny and Tucker did, because the second Danny introduced himself Ned was bombarding him with questions about what his dimension was like. It was kind of amusing just how excited Ned was to hear about Danny's day to day. The funniest thing by far, though, was when Ned asked him about what kind of technology Danny's world had, and Danny told him about the latest model of PDA that Tucker had been saving up for. The horrified look on Neds face was priceless.

By the time Ned had finished asking his questions and had to go home, Danny had caught his breath, though the walk back to Peters apartment had Danny feeling ready to collapse and just sleep. Unfortunately, he didn't get to do that because Tony Stark was waiting for them.

Danny had sat down on the couch and did his best to ignore Tony, which would have worked better if the man wasn't trying to give him things, mostly clothes. While Tony had dropped bag after bag at Danny's feet he'd also babbled about how Pepper, whoever that was, had said that Tony should apologize to Danny for the way he'd treated him. Tony had then proceeded to say that he didn't think he'd done anything wrong, gave Danny a credit card, and left. After Tony had finally left Danny had collapsed in his, or rather Peters, bed to sleep.

Since that walk to the park with Peter, Danny had been going on daily walks, attempting to build his stamina back up.

As the days went on, he became more comfortable with the Parkers, particularly Miss May, and he found himself wanting to do something for them to show how grateful he was to be staying with them. Since both May and Peter were unskilled in the kitchen, Danny decided that that was something that he could do for them. It would also make sure the two ate more consistently, since they both were rather busy and didn't seem to prioritize food.

* * *

Doctor Martin held the phone in her hand and took a deep breath. Asking for things in Hydra was always risky business, but even more so when you were on probation. It was lucky that she was the only known scientist currently working with dimensional rifts, or she'd be dead already. She pressed call and held the phone up to her ear, letting out a breath slowly as she did so.

"Have you caught the subject?" her mistress asked as soon as the phone connected.

"No ma'am, but I have located him."

"If you haven't captured him, then why are you calling me?" The tone was neutral, but Doctor Martin knew better than to assume that her mistress was as calm as she sounded.

"Preliminary tracking shows that it would be dangerous to attempt a capture with the forces I have available."

"What's your request?"

"I need a specialized squadron so we can knock out the subject as quickly as possible. They'd need to work in conjunction with my current forces so that we can do this as safely and swiftly as we can."

"I'll see what I can do. Hail Hydra."

"Hail Hydra!" the phone clicked off and Doctor Martin dropped her hand from her face and took a deep breath. With luck, they'd be ready to mobilize before the end of the week. If not, they'd have to anyway. She was running out of time. She looked at the magazine on her desk and sneered.

"Stark Industries looking into the possibility of other dimensions! More on page 21!" the headline declared.

* * *

Wade ran from rooftop to rooftop, leaping alleys and gaps between buildings with a skill born from years of experience. **{more like years of faceplanting.}** [_I think that still counts as experience, in a manner of speaking._] "guys, shut up! I'm trying to be cool!" **{you can't be cool if you're a loser.}** [_cool people don't have pizza face._] "Hey!" Wade shouted, the voices distracting him enough that he missed his next jump and slammed into the edge of the building he'd been aiming for. He scrambled to catch himself, but still ended up plummeting to the ground and breaking both his legs.

**{lame.}** [_well, that was pathetic._] Wade groaned and pulled himself to his feet, twisting the bones back into place as he did so. "You distracted me!" he argued. [_you distracted yourself. Watch out!_] The warning came too late and Wade found himself pressed face first into the brick next to him, with his arm twisted painfully behind his back.

"What are you doing back in New York, Deadpool?" Daredevil growled at him.

"Hey angel face! It's so good to see you again, are you happy to see me too, or is that just your baton?" Daredevil abruptly dropped him and stepped back.

"Answer the question, Deadpool." Wade turned around to see Daredevil standing in a fighting stance, batons in hand.

"Aw, just your Batons then. That's too bad." [_like he'd go for your crater face, even if you didn't annoy him._]

"Deadpool." **{did he ask us something?}**[_yes, he wants to know why we're in New York. I want to know that too, actually. Didn't I say we should stay away from the kid?_]

"But if I stay away then how am I supposed to know if he's okay? Your ideas are garbage anyway."

"Wade! Answer the fucking question!"

"What question?" Wade grinned as Daredevil snarled at him.

"What. are. You. doing. in. New York."

"Oh, _that_ question. I wanted to check up on the kid, but he's not in the Stark Med bay anymore, so I'm scouring the city for him." Daredevil sighed and put his batons away.

"The kid's fine. He's staying with a friend until he can go home. You don't have to worry about him." [..._He knows where the kid is._] **{kill him.}** [_don't _kill _him. Just torture him until he tells you where the kid is._] **{I thought you didn't want us around the kid.}** [_I changed my mind. I'm allowed to do that!_] "Wade? You're being really quiet." Deadpool tilted his head.

"You know where he is." Deadpool said.

"That's not-"

"Tell me." Deadpool took a step forward, and Daredevil dropped back into a fighting stance. Deadpool scanned him for opening automatically. "Where is he? Tell me."

"Why do you need to know?" Deadpool twitched at the question. **{he's not telling us! Break his leg! Look, he's favouring the left!}** [_No! He's going to tell us. Just give it a minute._]

"I need to know he's safe. Tell me where he is. _Now_." Deadpool's hand inched towards the closest knife.

"Fine." Daredevil said, and Wade relaxed back against the wall. [_see? I told you he'd break._] **{yes, yes. You're the All Knowing. Dick wad.}** [_what did you just call me, you pansy?!_] "I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep your distance." **{I called you a dick wad, dick wad.}** [_you…! You incompatant douche canoe! If I could kill you, I would!_]

"I promise that if the kid isn't in any danger I won't even let him know I'm there. Is that good?" **{even if you could kill me, you wouldn't be able to, **_**dick wad!**_ [_how dare you!_]

"That works for me."

* * *

Danny had been feeling great for the past two days. He'd been comfortable with the Parkers for the past few weeks, but now it felt like a new energy had filled him. He found himself humming as he put together a simple salad and a sandwich to send miss May off to work with. She had stumbled into the kitchen bleary eye with her hair a mess shortly after he started the bacon, and now she was having a shower.

Peter glanced up from his third helping of bacon and gave Danny an odd look. "You're in a good mood today. Sleep well?" Danny shrugged.

"Maybe. I just feel happy today. You still hungry?" Peter grinned at Danny.

"Nah, I'm good. Are you going to eat?" Peter asked, standing up and putting his plate in the sink.

"Oh, I ate before you guys got up. Do you have your internship today?"

"Yep. thanks for breakfast, but I should be going now. I'll do the dishes when I get back." Peter grabbed his backpack and headed out the door just as Danny heard the shower shut off.

"Don't worry about it!" Danny called after him, but the door was closed before Danny had finished speaking.

Miss May came out of the hall just after Peter had left, with her hair in a tight bun and her work clothes on. Danny held the bag with her lunch in it towards her. "I made you lunch."

"Oh! Thank you so much, sweetheart, but you don't need to do this everyday." Danny shrugged.

"I like helping, and it's not like I have much else to do all day." May smiled at him.

"Thank you. I have to get going now, the spare key is by the door. Have a good day, Danny!"

"Thanks, miss May, you too!" The door clicked shut behind May, and Danny was alone in the quiet apartment. Or, as quiet as a New York apartment could seemingly get. The walls _were_ rather thin.

Danny puttered around the apartment for a few hours, straightening up the living area, washing the dishes. Sitting on Peters/his bed and reading the text books that Peter left laying around. Eventually, when all that got boring, Danny decided he'd go for a walk. He checked the clock before he left. It was 12:14 pm, so Danny grabbed the credit card Tony had given him before he left, locking the door behind him.

As Danny meandered about the streets, he found himself thinking of home. Were Sam and Tucker blaming themselves for his disappearance? Was Jazz? He hoped not. His parents were almost certainly looking for him, as would Sam, Tucker, and Jazz. Did anyone else know he was missing? What were his parents telling people?

These thoughts occupied Danny's entire mind as he wandered, which is why he didn't notice the man following him. He turned down an alley, and then there was a hand pressing into his shoulder and shoving his face into a wall. Danny yelped and struggled for a moment before instinctively going intangible. The man stumbled forward with a startled shout, and Danny felt, simultaneously, a rush of pride for getting out of the mans grasp, as well as a burning pain spike in his core before he dropped his intangibility.

Danny turned to run out of the alley - He was in no shape to be fighting someone right now - and ran straight into a woman with shoulders so broad she blocked out the sun.

"Where're you running off to so quick, little boy?" she asked, her tone mocking. Danny scowled and lifted his chin.

"Oh my god, a talking wall! And it's asking stupid questions!" The woman scowled at Danny and pulled a gun.

"You best be shutting that mouth of yours, if you know what's good for you." she growled. Danny snorted.

"Maybe you should back off, if you know what's good for you, _lady_" The woman raised the gun and fired at Danny, who went intangible again before flickering back to solid with a pained gasp.

"Watch where you point that thing, you could have-" Danny cut off as the man that had pinned him to the wall earlier tackled him to the ground.

"Ha! That was easier than we were told it would be." the man exclaimed as he wrenched Danny's arms behind his back. Danny wheezed a little, trying not to whimper at how much that had hurt.

"I think you should reconsider what you call easy, cheese brain." a new voice called. A familiar voice. Wade?

Another three gunshots rang out through the alley and the man pinning Danny to the ground collapsed half on top of him. Danny gasped at the sudden pressure before he pulled himself out from under the man and was met with a rather… _odd_ sight. Wade, Deadpool, had a pistol in one hand and a burrito in the other and was facing off against the broad woman.

"You interrupted daddys me time, you naughty girl." Wade yelled at her, somehow managing to take a bite of his burrito without lifting his mask, while firing the pistol at the woman at the same time. "No, you're right, that does sound wrong."

The woman somehow dodged the gunshot and returned fire at Wade with her own gun, which Wade didn't dodge. Danny felt his heart jump in his chest as the bullet punched through Wades burrito hand, spraying blood everywhere.

"Ow! Fuck! Fuck you, bitch! I was going to eat that! Fuck! You've ruined it! Now it's covered in blood!" as Wade screamed profanities he threw his burrito at the womans head, and as she moved to dodge it, Wade fired one more time and the woman dropped to the ground, limp. Danny stared, horrified, as the blood spread from her body. Wade shook his bloody hand and glanced over to where Danny was moving unsteadily to his feet.

"Man, Hydra sure is losing their edge. Why, when I was your age… what do you mean 'duck'? I don't see a duck." Another shot rang out as Wade ducked his head.

Danny felt something hit his chest. It burned. He glanced down. He was bleeding. Did he reopen the scar? Miss May had said that it had healed well, it shouldn't be bleeding. Wade was arguing with himself. Danny's vision blurred. This felt familiar. This was… he'd been shot. Danny stared at the blood that was dripping down his shirt, splattering the ground. He didn't feel right.

"Kid? Kid?! Danny!" Wade sounded far away. Danny tried to tell him that he was alright, but he was choking. The ground rushed up to meet him as the world finally went black.


	29. Chapter 29

"Kid? Kid?! Danny!" Wade screamed, eyes wide as he watched Danny choke on blood before collapsing forward. Another shot rang out and Wade felt it impact with his shoulder, but he didn't react. That bullet was meant for him. If he hadn't ducked…

[_you absolute fuckup._] **{you can't do anything right, can you?}** [_couldn't even protect one kid. Pathetic._] **{hey. Maybe get off your ass and kill the fuckers that shot him. Or can you even manage that?}** Deadpool shuddered as he turned around, eyes scanning the street behind him. There were so many people… how had they not noticed the gunshots? [_they're hydra._]**{kill them. Kill them **_**all.**_ **It's the least you could do for the kid.}** [_Make it __**painful**_] movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he turned his head. One of the regular 'citizens' had pulled a gun. There was a hydra pin on his jacket lapel. **{make them bleed}** a shot hit his stomach, and Deadpool narrowed his eyes at the man who had just shot him.

"Shouldn't have done that." he said, drawing Bea and Arthur. "I'm going to make this last. I'm going to paint this street red. I'll bring new meaning to the phrase 'painting the town red'."**{rip out their organs!}**

Deadpool moved, and the world blurred around him. Everything moved in snapshots, like the panels of a graphic novel. There was a head by his foot. Someone was clutching their shoulder where an arm had been. Someone's screaming was ringing in his ears. His hands were buried in a woman's guts, and she scrabbled at his wrists with tears streaming down her face. Someone shot Deadpools ear off. It regrew. He was missing a hand and he didn't know where his Katana had gone. He set off a grenade and lost a foot. People were shouting. Someone tried to tackle him, and Deadpool dislocated the man's shoulder before stabbing him in the stomach with a knife. Shots skimmed off of Deadpools neck and shoulders as he wove through the crowd, a stab here, a gunshot there. Cut that ones tongue out.

Then, the world tilted. Blood dripped into his eyes, and everything went gray. "Who turned off the sun?" He slurred, teetering on his feet. Someone grabbed Deadpools throat, and then there was a knife in his skull and the world went away.

* * *

There was a being in front of him. "_It's nice to see you again, Danny._" he tilted his head. "_Please, sit down. Would you like some tea?_" He shrugged as he sat. "_I'll pour you a cup, and you can have some if you'd like. It's good for the throat._" The being seemingly conjured a tea set out of nowhere and filled two cups. Steam wisped up from the surface of the liquid. "_Would you like some honey? I'd offer you milk and sugar, but I'm afraid I'm out at the moment._" They didn't wait for him to answer, instead stirring a spoon of honey into each cup and pushing one towards him. He picked it up and stared into it for a moment before setting it back down.

"_Do I know you?_" he asked, his voice echoing strangely in the void around him. It was familiar.

"_We've met before, yes. Though it was brief. Do you recall?_" They took a sip of their own tea. "_It's okay if you can't, right now. I understand that this must be quite strange to you._" He blinked.

"_I…_" he couldn't find the words. They had met, he was sure of it. When? ('_just one picture Danny, and then we can go.' 'I'm not sure this is such a good idea, Sam.'_) "_we have met._" the cloak the being wore tilted, and he got the distinct impression of someone smiling at him.

"_Don't push yourself. Some find it easier to forget entirely._" they nodded at his tea cup. "_Drink your tea._" he took a sip. (_pain, burning. Someone was screaming. Him? It hurt. Just make it stop._)

"_Am I dead?_" he asked. They smiled at him.

"_For now._" (_a hand caressed his hair. 'oh, child. I'm so sorry it was this way, but you have to go home. I can't embrace you yet, you still have so much left to do.'_)

"_For now?_" he asked.

"_Yes. For now._" they reached across the table and brushed his hair back.

"_We've been here before,_" he said. Their hood slipped back, and he caught a glimpse of porcelain white bone before they pulled it forward again. Their hands were skeletal. "_You're Death._"

"_Yes._" they sat in silence for a bit, sipping their tea. Then, Death pulled a pocket watch from their robe. "_It's time for you to go back. I'm sorry I can't keep you._"

"_Go back?_" they brushed their hand through his hair again, and he found himself leaning into it.

"_Yes._"

"_Why can't I stay here?_"

"_It's not your time._" Sorrow washed over him.

"_But I don't want to go. I like it here!_" the table was gone, and Death pulled him into a hug.

"_I know. But you have to leave. I can't keep you here._" he sobbed.

"_Please! Please don't make me go!_"

* * *

Phantom blinked his eyes open. Something was off. The air tasted like crimson and electric blue. The world distorted and inverted everywhere he looked. Small pops, like fireworks, echoed through the air. Sulfur and charcoal was thick in his nose. Where was Wade?

"We got him!" Danny turned his head, and there he was! Wade! "Get the knife!" Knife? Someone was grabbing Wade, and that wasn't right. What were they doing? They had a knife! He had to stop them! But he was too late, the knife was already buried in Wades head. Time suspended itself. He was gone. He was gone? Gone where? Dead. Death was nice, he wished he could have stayed longer. They killed Wade. Killed him? Killed him dead. He was dead. It's fine, Phantoms dead, but he's still here. But Wade wouldn't come back, he was human. Human? Mortal. That's not good. That's bad. He's supposed to keep them safe. Who? Humans. Wades a human. Wade's dead, they killed him. Killed him? That's not right. They shouldn't do that. He should do that to them, show them what it's like to die. Dying hurts. Make them _**SUFFER**_.

The man stepped back from Wade's body, and it slumped to the ground, limp. The world shifted technicolor, and the man exploded into neon green snow. The world tasted red. Everything tastes red when your fangs are buried in their throats. His hands were wet. He licked them. They tasted red too. They were screaming. Who? They killed Wade. Killed him? They should die, then. Death would not be kind to them. They killed Wade. the screams were gone. They killed Wade, he killed them. Wade.

The technicolor faded, and Phantom hovered over to where Wade was crumpled on the ground, bathing in the blood of the ones who killed him. Good. it was good that they were dead, they could never hurt anyone again. Like Wade. Wade was dead, and that was bad. There was a knife in his head. Their knife. That wasn't right. Anything they touched was tainted. He couldn't let it touch Wade, and have him tainted too. Water slipped down his cheeks as he let himself settle in the red. He cradled Wade's head in his lap as he firmly gripped the knife and pulled it from Wades head. Then he let grief wash over him.

* * *

Wade glanced around. Ah, he'd died again. Oh, and there was Death! "_Hey hot stuff!_" he called, strolling over to her tea table. It was set, which was odd. "_You have company over before I got here?_" he glanced over at Death and paused. She was sitting stiffly and staring at her hands. "_Babe? You okay?_" she looked up at him.

"_It wasn't his time, I had to let him go._" her voice wavered as she spoke, and Wade dropped heavily into the chair across from her.

"_That's fine, he'll be back. They always are, you know?_" she smiled at him.

"_Yes, of course. But it will be centuries for him before he can stay, and he didn't want to leave._" Wade perked up.

"_Centuries? That's a pretty long time. Are you sure you won't see him again before that?_"

"_Oh, I have no doubt that I will see him again. He is my brother's charge, after all. But he will not come to stay with me for a long time._"

"_You have a brother?_" Death laughed.

"_Yes, Time._"

"_I suppose that makes sense._" Wade grabbed one of the half full tea cups from the table and downed it. "_Hey! There's no sugar in this!_" he exclaimed, face scrunching up in disgust. Death laughed, and Wade grinned back at her.

"_You would complain about that, I suppose._" Death sighed. "_It's time for you to leave again. I wish you could stay._"

"_I wish I could stay, too. I keep trying._" Death smiled sadly at him.

"_You shouldn't keep trying. There's more important things that you need to do in life._"

"_Is there at least time to bone down before I have to go?_" Death laughed softly again.

"_There is not. And I do believe that I will not be seeing you for a while, so this is farewell for now, my love._" Death cupped his face, and Wade stared into her empty eye sockets.

"_Please let me stay?_" he asked. Death kissed him softly, and then he was waking up.

* * *

Someone was crying, heart wrenching sobs that made Wade feel melancholy as well. Had he killed someones loved one? He hated when he had to wake up to that, but he couldn't remember. He'd probably been shot or stabbed in the head, then, since that always fucked with his memory. At least that meant the voices would be quiet for a bit.

Wade blinked open his eyes, groaning as they stuck together, probably with blood. There was a kid crouched above him, a bloody knife clutched in his hand. Wade blinked a few more times, and noticed that the kid was slathered in blood. Something was familiar about the white hair, so bright it was almost glowing. He squinted. The hair _was_ glowing, and Wade _did_ know the kid. He'd saved the kid from Hydra and Weapon X. Hey, the kid was crying over him. And covered in blood. He should probably make sure the kid was okay.

"Danny?" he croaked, and the kids sobbing hitched as bright, glowing teal eyes peaked open, still swimming in tears that dripped down the kids blood soaked face. Speaking of, there was a hell of a lot of blood on the kids lips. "Are you okay?"

"W… W… Wade!" Danny wailed as he threw the knife aside and wrapped his arms awkwardly around Wades chest, pressing his own chest into Wade's face in the process.

[_hug him back, dickwad._] ah, the voices were back. Wade wrapped his arms around Danny awkwardly and patted his back. "Shh, you're okay. There there." **{you suck at this.}**

"You… you… but… you _died!_" Danny sat up and leaned closer to Wades face before running a hand down the torn side of Wades mask. Where the knife had been, probably. "You… healed?" **{He's touching your gross face! Cut his hand off!}** [_no! Don't hurt him! Make him stop touching us!_] Wade whimpered a little as he grabbed Danny's wrist and pulled it away from his face. Danny leaned back. **{no glove! No glove! Stop touching him!}** Wade yanked his hand away from Danny like he'd been burned and sat up.

The street was soaked in blood, and there were dead bodies everywhere. Had he killed all these people? [_obviously not, dumbass, or you wouldn't have been having tea time with Death._] **{yeah, and I don't recall you biting people. Unless that's a new ability that we gained? That would be rad}**[_don't say rad, you sound like a moron._] Wade looked closer at the bodies. There _were_ bite marks. Something impacted with his back, and Wade just barely managed to keep himself from throwing Danny over his shoulder. **{why is he touching us? Why is he touching us?! Make him stop!}** [_Calm down, idiot. The kid's been through a lot, just let him have this._]

"Danny?" The kid hummed, rubbing his face against Wades back before pressing the side of his head firmly into Wade. "Are you okay?" Danny let out a rumbling giggle.

"I'm fine. You're alive." **{has the kid always been this weird?}** [_we haven't really spent much time with him, there's no way to know._]

"Did you…" Wade cut himself off. Did he want to know? Danny hummed at him again, that weird underlying rumble picking up when he did. "Did you kill them?" Danny propped his chin on Wades shoulder and stared out at the street.

"Yes." [_his voice sounds kind of… off. What's up with that?_] "They hurt you. Killed you. Dying hurts, they shouldn't have done that."

"Okay." Wade stood up, and Danny clung to his shoulders as he did so. "You're pretty light there, kid. You been eating enough?"

"Yes. Ghosts don't weigh anything, you have to have mass to have weight." Wade nodded.

"That makes sense. You want to head home? I need to go put on some clean clothes."

"I'll come with you." **{are you just going to ignore the fact that he said he's a ghost?!}**


	30. Chapter 30

Peter slumped against the apartment door as it shut behind him. The internship was fun, and he'd never give up an opportunity like this, but he did wish that Mr. Stark wasn't ignoring him. Ever since Danny had come to live with them, it was like Mr. Stark had shut himself in the lab and wouldn't come out or let anyone else in. Peter had ideas for that portal, damnit! And Mr. Stark wasn't talking to him.

"Danny, I'm back!" He called into the quiet apartment. Danny didn't respond, so Peter shrugged and threw his backpack on the couch before wandering into the kitchen. The dishes from that morning were already done, which he had been fully expecting. He pulled open the fridge and grabbed a slice of leftover pizza from a ziploc bag, and shoved it in his mouth. Danny was probably taking a nap or something. Peter had learned over the past few weeks that Danny did that a lot, and Aunt May said it was because he was recovering.

Peter had just sat down on the couch with a second slice of pizza, ready to veg out to whatever garbage was on tv, when he heard a clatter from outside. A familiar clatter. The sound of the fire escape when you land on it too heavily! Was someone on the fire escape? Oh god, what if they were trying to break in! Should he call the cops? Wait, no, he's Spider-Man! He can handle this.

Peter heard the window in his room clunk open. He shoved the slice of pizza in his mouth as he grabbed the baseball bat that May kept next to the couch for 'emergencies'. Peter had joked about it when she first got it, but now he was so glad they had it. There was a loud crash from his room, and he startled a little, before beginning to creep silently down the hall. He could hear someone talking.

"What do you mean ' watch where we're going'? I am watching where we're going! You try navigating with someone clinging to you, ass wipe!"

That voice sounded familiar. Where had he heard it before? Peter yanked open the door to his room, bat raised and ready to attack… and froze. There was a large man standing in the middle of his room, dressed head to toe in red and black leather, and there was someone clinging to the mans shoulders and giggling. Peter locked eyes with the man and the half eaten slice of pizza fell out of his mouth.

"Deadpool?" he asked.

"Aw, kid, you're wasting food! Gross!" a head popped up over Deadpools shoulder and Peter looked over to see glowing white hair and bright teal eyes staring at him.

"Danny?" Peter lowered the bat a little.

"Peter!" Danny chirped back, wrapping himself further around the broad shoulders of Deadpool. "You're safe!"

"Hey, uh, Peter. We, well, _I_ was just in the neighborhood, so I thought, 'why don't I stop by and check up on that kid', right? So, um. I'll just... be going. Now." Peter stared at him as the man inched back towards the window with Danny still wrapped around his shoulders. "No, _you're_ fucking this up!" Deadpool hissed off to the side.

"What is… I mean… what?" Peter sputtered.

"Wade, we can't leave!" Danny whined.

"No, it's fine, you stay here and I'll go… somewhere else."

"You can't leave! It's not safe! What if you die when I'm not looking?" Deadpool froze. Peter stared. Danny curled himself tighter around Deadpools shoulders.

"Um… do you… I mean… you don't have to leave, Mr. Deadpool." What was he saying?! Of course Deadpool should leave! But… Danny looked so upset at the idea. "Do you want some… I mean, there's some leftover pizza... if you're hungry?"

"Ohh, pizza. You sure know the way to a guys heart, kid. Of course I'll stay if you want me too." Peter smiled uncertainly, and Danny purred. Wait, what? Deadpool patted the top of Danny's head. "Lead the way, Peter pumpkin pie!"

Deadpool followed Peter to the kitchen, where Peter gave him a couple slices of pizza and grabbed another for himself. "Danny, are you… um. Are you hungry?" Danny giggled, still purring.

"Don't be silly, ghosts don't need to eat." Peter laughed uncertainly at the joke, and Danny grinned a toothy, fanged smile at him. Wait. Fanged? Should he be freaking out? No, it's fine. Peter knew Danny was enhanced, so what if the fangs were a bit of a surprise. It's fine, nothing he can't handle. Or shove to the back of his mind to process later.

* * *

May sighed as she trudged up the last flight of stairs to the apartment. The elevator was still broken, which she didn't normally mind, but today she had worked an hour of overtime and was ready to collapse. At least she had the weekend off before she was switched back to night shift.

May leaned against the door frame as she dug through her purse for the house hey, and smiled at the sound of the TV. May knew that Peter didn't usually watch a lot of television when he got home, he was usually much more interested in doing something active, so it was nice to know that he was probably showing Danny some of their worlds media. May opened the door and the sound from the tv became audible.

(S3, Ep11'three on a couch')"_She's always harping on us to do everything just right. I'm surprised she doesn't check our underwear before we leave the house!_" May glanced over at the living room as she closed the door and paused. Since when does Peter watch the Golden Girls? "_Those of you who _wear _underwear._"

A mans uproarious laughter startled May as she realized it came, not from the TVs laugh track, but from her couch. Where Peter was sitting with his head in his hands. Sitting next to Peter there was a broad shouldered figure dressed in red and black, head leaned back, and clearly the one who was laughing.

May stared at this scene as she toed her shoes off. Should she be concerned? There was a strange man in her home, sitting on the couch alone with her teenage nephew, who she was responsible for. So, yes, she should be concerned. But at the same time, May knew that Peter could take care of himself, and he didn't look too distressed.

May set her purse down on the table next to the door and watched for a little bit longer. Peter looked embarrassed, but not distressed. Okay, nothing new. But there wasn't much else she could gather from this by just watching, so she may as well announce her presence.

"What the fuck is going on here?" she asked as calmly as she could, causing Peter to jump and the strange man to turn off the TV.

"Aunt May!" Peter yelped, tumbling off the couch and turning to face her, eyes wide.

"Hi! It's nice to meet you!" The man said, reaching his arm over the back of the couch towards her, as though to shake her hand. May raised an eyebrow, and the hand drooped.

"May!" Danny chirped excitedly, materializing on the mans shoulder as though he'd been there the entire time. May screamed when he appeared.

"What the fuck?!" Danny's eyes were glowing bright teal, and his hair was bright white… and… and he'd just appeared out of thin air. And he was _glowing._ "What the fuck? Someone explain what's happening. Why is Danny glowing? Why is his hair white? What happened to his eyes? Did he just appear out of thin air? Who are you and what are you doing in my house?"

"My name's Deadpool. Or Wade. Wade Winston Wilson, if you nasty. Sup, babe?" the red suited my pointed finger guns at her, and she got the distinct impression that he was leering.

"Don't flirt with my Aunt!" Peter shouted at the man. Danny grinned at her. Were those fangs? What the fuck was going on? She didn't have the energy to deal with this right now.

"Does anyone else want some tea?" She asked.

"Yes please, Aunt may!" Deadpool - Wade? - chirped.

"Sure, Aunt… Hey! She's my Aunt, not yours!"

"No thank you, miss May. Ghosts don't need human food." And, yep. Those were fangs. Okay. Her nephew was a spider mutant, and the kid from the other dimension had fangs, and was maybe a ghost. She could handle this. This was fine.

* * *

This was not fine. This _was not_ fine. Also, this was all Starks fault. After May had made some tea, she had sat down across from Peter and… Wade, while Wade explained that he was actually the one who had found Danny first, and had basically orchestrated the rescue attempt.

When he got to where he had left Danny in the _safe_ hands of Tony Stark, Peter had abruptly stood up from the couch and loudly exclaimed that Tony had told him to stay well clear of Wade/Deadpool. Which then caused Wade to declare that he should go… which resulted in Danny bursting into hysterics and screaming about how Wade couldn't leave because Wade would die if Danny wasn't there to save him. May had a headache.

So now, here May was with one hysteric teenager, one anxious teenager, and a very well armed fully grown man in a red leather gimp suit who was holding on to said hysteric teenager. What was her life? When people had told her that the teenage years were the hardest for a parent to help their child navigate, was this what they meant? May didn't think that she had wanted to strangle Tony and leave him in a ditch off the highway to rot more than she did at this moment. She also wanted a nap.

May put her head in her hands and listened as Wade attempted to cajole Danny into letting go of him so he could leave, and the resultant uptick in hysterical crying. Peter stood off to the side shifting from foot to foot looking guilty. May took a deep, calming breath.

"Mr. Wilson," she said, lifting her head from her hands. Wade turned to face her, awkwardly patting Danny on the back as he did so. "Please sit back down and finish your story."

"And then I should leave?" he asked. Danny let out a warbling sob.

"I'm not so sure that would be good for Danny right now. Please, sit." Wade sat, and Danny crawled into his lap and pressed his face against Wades chest, still sobbing.

By the time Wade had finished his story, Danny had calmed down and was just hiccuping occasionally. May felt numb. Danny had been shot? Danny had _died?!_ Peter looked like he was in as much shock as May. Silence filled the room, and Wade cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Should I go?" He asked quietly. Danny whimpered.

"I think," May started slowly. "That you should probably stay, at least for the time being. You've both been through a lot today, and I think Danny, at least, needs to know that you're okay. He seems pretty attached to you."


	31. Chapter 31

Matt crouched on the edge of the building and breathed in the cool night air. Peter was late enough that he had begun to worry, but he kept telling himself that Peter was Spider-Man, and that he could take care of himself. But the kid was also really reckless, what if he'd gotten involved in something beyond his capabilities? He had that Stark suit, and if something were wrong Iron Man would be flying across the city to save the kid.

Matt listened for the tell tale sound of Iron Mans thrusters, and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't hear them. But what if there was something wrong with the Spider-Suit, and Peter was in danger?

This train of thought was cut off before Matt could work himself into even more of a panic about it when he heard the distinctive _thwip_ of Peter's web shooters. Matt waited until Peter landed on the roof softly before he moved.

"You're late." He said as he turned around. He could hear Peter shuffle around as Matt tracked him.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Peter said. "Lifes been _real_ weird lately. Deadpools living in my apartment." Matt blinked behind his cowl in shock.

"Deadpool is…" Matt took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. Did you just say that _Deadpool_ is currently living at your apartment?"

"Ye-ap" Matt could hear the grin in Peter's voice.

"Do you mean… in the same building?" _God, let it be the same building. If you have any mercy, it will be the same building._

"Nah, I mean my apartment. Although, I guess you could say that technically, since my apartment is in the same building that it's in, then Deadpool _is_ living in the same building. You know, technically. So, what are we learning today?"

Matt gritted his teeth and got into a fighting stance. He would be having a _talk_ with Wade later. Right now, he had a Spider-Kid to teach.

* * *

Phantom watched Wade out of the corner of his eye as he hovered near the ceiling. Wade was flopped across the couch, half way upside down, playing games on his phone as the TV chattered in the background. Phantom flipped to face the wall, and contemplated the green glow reflected there. There was something… not _wrong, _per se, but definitely not _right._

Phantom hummed to himself and glanced back at Wade, who was still distracted by his phone. Peter had gone out as Spider-Man, and Miss May had had to go back to work tonight, so it was just Phantom and Wade left at the apartment now. Which was good, because Phantom had noticed that he was tending to feel how others were. Or at least, that's what he thought was happening. Maybe.

Phantom rolled upside down in the air and watched Wade drop his phone on his face, yelp, and fall off the couch head-first. He felt a spike of frustration and turned back to face the wall. Phantom frowned and looked down at himself. Why was he 'Phantom' right now anyway? He didn't need to be. Did he?

"Hey Dan-o? You good up there?" Phantom glanced down at Wade, who was now standing below him, and smiled.

"Wade! I'm great!" he floated down from the ceiling and draped himself across Wades shoulders. He could feel Wade relax as he did so, and smiled to himself. Whatever was off with his own head could wait, Wade needed him.

They, or rather, Wade, walked back over to the couch, where Wade sat heavily and forced Phantom to either relocate his limbs or end up squished between Wade's shoulders and the back of the couch. Phantom ended up laying across the back of the couch with his chin on top of Wade's head, and his arms propping him up on Wade's shoulders. Phantom listened to Wade chatter idly as they both watched the TV.

Wade was halfway through a rather gruesome story about some time when he had attempted to fill a swimming pool with blood when his phone rang. Wade didn't even stop talking when he grabbed his phone and swiped the screen so the call declined. The name 'Weasel' faded from the screen and then immediately lit up again, and again Wade declined the call. This repeated about four times, with Wade never stopping his story, to the point where Phantom wondered who this 'Weasel' person was that Wade didn't want to talk to.

When Wade finished his story, and his phone started ringing again, Wade answered.

"_-Son of a bitch, answer your _god-damn…" Weasel, presumably, was shouting.

"Yellow." Wade interrupted the shouting from the other side of the phone.

"_You bastard! I've been trying to call you for ten minutes you piece of trash. Answer your phone when I call you!"_

"Aw, baby. Did you miss me?" Wade laughed. Phantom slid off the back of the couch so that he was sitting next to Wade instead of behind him.

"_You…! I…! Fuck you, Wade!"_ Weasel sputtered, half-way to incoherent. "_I have a job for you, stop being a dick."_ at those words, Wade leaned forward.

"You have a job? I thought I was cut off." Wade shifted into a more proper sitting position as he spoke.

"_You were. Client requested you specifically. Said that, and I quote, 'it's a job that requires Deadpool'. Dude was kind of a dick about it, but he's paying big money, so… anyway. Come down to Sister Margerets, I'll give you the rundown."_ The phone clicked off, after Probably-Weasel was done talking, and Wade dropped the phone from his face and stared at his hands. Phantom watched him.

"Would you be willing to stay here while I go out?" Wade asked after a long silence. Phantom tilted his head.

"Wade." Phantom said.

"Yeah, I didn't think so. Come on kid, I'm taking you to your first bar."

* * *

Jazz parked her car in front of city hall and took a deep breath. Valerie was on ghost hunting duty, and Sam and Tucker were in the ghost zone with the specter speeder on their way to the far frozen, which left Jazz to talk to Vlad. Jazz took a deep breath before she walked through the door. She talked her way past the receptionist and was in the mayor's office within minutes.

"Ah, Jasmine. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Vlad asked when Jazz was finally sitting down in front of him, her shoulders stiff and her hands held together in her lap.

"Danny's missing." she said, her throat tight. As much as Jazz hated to admit it, she hoped that Vlad was the one that took him. Vlad hummed.

"I thought that was this weekend's adventure," Vlad said, rolling his eyes as he shuffled papers on his desk without looking at her. Jazz frowned. "Surely you don't still think I had something to do with that?"

"No, we got him back. That was the GIW." Her eyes burned and she took a shaky breath in before continuing. "He fell through a ghost portal when he got home." she took a few more deep breaths to steady herself, and when she looked up Vlad had set aside the random papers and was looking at her.

"He fell through a ghost portal?" Vlad asked when Jazz looked at him. She nodded, and he hummed thoughtfully again. "I suppose you think that I have him, then?"

"I hope you have him," Jazz said, causing Vlad to reel back as though he'd been struck. "Because the Boo-merang isn't working, and Sam and Tucker said he was hiding injuries. So I hope to high heaven that you have him, because at least then I'd know he's safe." Jazz searched Vlad's face for a minute as they stared at each other. "Do you have Danny?"

"No. I do not." Vlad said, his voice slightly shaky. Jazz nodded stiffly and stood from her chair, eyes burning.

"Please, if you find him, or… or know where he might be, please let us know."

"What's in it for me if I do?" Vlad asked, and Jazz stifled a sob. She didn't say anything as she left, and Vlad watched her leave in silence. The GIW had hurt his pseudo-son, and now the child had gone missing. He would never say it out loud, but he was worried, "Where are you, Daniel?"

* * *

Sister Margarets was crowded with buff, burly and otherwise intimidating looking biker types. It also smelled like aunt Alicia's outhouse mixed with her liquor cabinet, and Phantom couldn't imagine why anyone would want to be here, ever. It was loud and hot in here, and from the door Phantom could hear the shrill shouts of the ratty man behind the counter as he tried to get the people closest to him to stop fighting. It didn't seem like they were listening to him though, because anyone not currently trying to bash another person's brains out was cheering the others on.

Wade pushed through this crowd as though it were no different than a field of tall grass, and Phantom followed in his wake helplessly. As much as Phantom wanted to go home now that he was here, he also couldn't bring himself to leave, even though he was feeling a bit like he could take someone's head off at the slightest provocation. Wade radiated joy though, so Phantom resolved himself to stick as close to Wade as possible.

As soon as they reached the counter Wade threw himself onto a bar stool, and Phantom gingerly followed his example with the stool right next to him. The man behind the bar, presumably Weasel, was the greasiest human that Phantom had ever seen. He had the distinct look of a rodent that had been dipped in grease.

"Yo, Weasel!" Wade yelled at the man, causing him to jump and look at them, and confirming Phantom's suspicion that this was, indeed, Weasel. "I will have your finest whiskey, and an apple juice for my friend here."

"I'm not wasting my whiskey on… Wade." Weasel stopped and stared at Phantom. Phantom smiled at him uncomfortably.

"I know I can't get drunk, but that doesn't mean that I don't still enjoy drinking!" Wade said indignantly.

"Wade." Weasel frowned deeply as he kept staring at Phantom.

"I mean, seriously, how much money do I make you, and you still won't give me anything better than piss beer." Wade continued, oblivious to the stare that Weasel was leveling at Phantom.

"Wade! Why is there a child in my bar?" Weasel yelled. Wade paused mid rant and looked around. Phantom could practically feel Weasels teeth grinding together as he raised a hand and pointed at Phantom.

"OH!" Wade exclaimed, looking at Phantom as though he'd never seen him before. "You mean Danny. Yeah, he's coming with me. Are you gonna get him an apple juice, or...?"

"You can't bring a kid with you on a job! Are you out of your mind?!" Weasel gestured wildly as he spoke.

"Of course I'm out of my mind! You know this about me!" Wade snapped back. The air around Phantom suddenly felt oppressive, so he closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe evenly.

"That is _not _what I meant, Wade, and you know it! You're gonna get him killed if you take him with you!" Weasel placed his hands on the bar top and leaned forward as he spoke.

"Well it sure _sounded_ like that was what you meant! And Danny can take care of himself!" Wade mirrored Weasels pose, anger radiating of of both of them.

"You don't know that! What if he takes on more than he can handle? What if he gets shot? Are you willing to have that kids _death_ on your conscience? I thought you were better than that!" Wade reeled back at Weasels vicious words, and then seemed to still himself as he returned the volley with something equally vicious.

Phantom could no longer hear the fight over the sound of blood rushing through his head. His core pulsed in his chest to the same beat, and Phantom almost felt like he was hooked back up to the electrodes in the Hydra lab. They were zapping him. Phantom opened his eyes. He was in a bar. Sister Margaretes. The room was incandescently bright, and he could taste iron. Blood? Someone grabbed his shoulder, and his skin felt like it was crawling off of him.

"You're in my spot, kid." A silky, low voice spoke right next to his ear. Phantom looked at the hand on his shoulder. The nails were long and painted blood red, with a skull motif on the middle finger. _Sam would like those_ he thought absently. The hand shook his shoulder. "Hey! Get out of my spot!" the voice was slightly shrill now. Where was Wade? Phantom glanced around. Wade was still arguing with Weasel, and they looked like they were both seconds from throwing punches. His chest felt tight and hot. "Are you even listening to me? Move!" The nails dug into Danny's shoulder, and he reacted without thought. The woman crashed into the wall of bottles behind the bar, and her head tilted at a _wrongwrongwrong_ angle. Everyone was staring at him. Everything was too quiet, and bright. They were looking at him. Why were they looking? He should take their eyes! They couldn't look if they had no eyes!

"Nice throw, Kid!" Wades voice shattered whatever trance he was in, and Phantom swiveled his head to look at him. Even through the mask, Phantom could tell that Wade was smiling, and some of the tension left him.

"What the fuck! Do you know how much that's going to cost to replace?" Weasels hands were in his hair, and he was staring at the dead woman with a horrified expression.

"Oh, relax Wease. It's not like you don't have more in the store room." Wade said flippantly, the anger at the other man apparently forgotten, though Phantom was sure it still simmered just below the surface.

"That's not the point!" Weasel dragged his hands over his face. "Whatever. Fine. the kid can go with you, but only because he needs to do something to pay off this debt." Weasel mumbled some stuff under his breath before he looked back up, and seemed to notice the entire bar was staring at Phantom. "What are you all looking at? Don't you have things to do?" Weasel snapped. Chatter picked back up, and Phantom relaxed further.

Phantom looked around the bar as Weasel and Wade chatted quietly, and when Wade went to the bathroom, Phantom found himself essentially alone with Weasel. It was strangely comfortable.

"So…" Weasel said after a moment of them staring at each other. "How did you meet Wade?"

"He pulled me out of a Hydra lab half dead." Phantom said. Weasel scrubbed his hands over his face and groaned.

"By any chance would that have been about… two months ago?" Phantom nodded. "Mother fucker lied to me! Okay. okay, fine. Why's he hanging around you now?"

"Probably because they tried to kidnap me, and then they shot me, and I _think _I died? I don't know. Wade did die, but he came back, so it's fine." Weasel stared at him quietly for a long moment, expressionless. Phantom shifted uncomfortably under the weight of Weasels stare. and then Weasel grinned.

"So you're enhanced? A mutant?" the excitement in Weasels voice, while suppressed, as still obvious.

"I'm a ghost." Phantom still didn't understand why everyone insisted on calling him a mutant. he _wasn't_.

"Potato, pah-tato. You're like… the perfect partner for Wade. Neither of you can die!" Weasel dug around under the counter for a minute, and then placed a juice box on the counter in front of Phantom. "Here, on the house. I like you, kid. Don't do anything stupid." and then Wade was back.

"Ready to go, kid?" Wade asked "The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can be in Africa." Phantom stood up and followed Wade to the door, juice box in hand.

"We're going to Africa?"


	32. Chapter 32

People reacted in a rather curious way, Phantom thought, to Wades bare face. Before heading to the airport Wade had swung by his apartment to put on his, as he called it, 'civilian disguise'. When Phantom had vaguely inquired why he needed to do that, a bare faced Wade had explained that 'Deadpool' was banned from any and all international flights, but that 'Wade Wilson' was not. Phantom wondered how that worked when the man introduced himself as both Deadpool and Wade Wilson, but that wasn't really his problem.

What was his problem was trying to filter and ignore the amount of disgust that was directed at Wade that Phantom was picking up from the crowded airport waiting area. The disgust, as a side effect, proved to Phantom that he _was_, indeed, feeling other people's emotions, because as far as he was concerned, Wade didn't even make the list of top 5 most gruesome faces that Phantom had seen. Phantom tried to ignore how much other peoples disgust irked him, since Wade seemed entirely unconcerned, but it was hard.

People were giving Wade a wide berth as though he looked like Spectra did when she was half melted, or even like some of the half rotted corpses in Princess Doratheas army. On second thought, that second comparison wasn't too far off, but at least you could tell Wade was still alive and breathing. His skin, while wet, and flaky and kind of slimy looking, still held that necessary vitality only held by the living.

Really, Phantom thought people were being kind of rude with their stares. It's not like the half healed scabs and slowly shifting scars that Wade kept picking at were green or pus-y. They looked pretty healthy, actually. You couldn't even see where he'd been stabbed in the head anymore. People were weird.

When their flight was called Phantom trailed behind Wade onto the plane, and tried to hold in the growl building in his throat when most of the people seated closest to them straight up left the plane. He failed to hold in the growl when a woman who had been seated directly across from Wade stood up and demanded that her seat be changed because she didn't want to be seated across from "that freaky monster" for the duration of the flight. Wade's arm dropping across Phantom's shoulder calmed him down some, and he tucked his hands into the sleeves of the sweater that Wade had shoved over his head earlier.

The seats across the aisle from Phantom and Wade remained empty when the plane took off, but Wade didn't seem to particularly care. For the first hour and a half of the flight, Phantom stared out the window at the clouds passing slowly beneath him. It was almost surreal for Phantom to be sitting in a capsule this high up instead of flying free with the feeling of wind in his hair. Phantom turned to look at Wade, who had his legs on the empty seat across from them, quite rudely blocking the aisle. He was playing on his phone, some game that Phantom didn't quite understand about matching candy.

"Hey, Wade?" Phantom asked hesitantly. Wade hummed. "How did you get me on this flight? I don't, y'know, have a passport?"

"Same way I got my carry on full of guns on this plane. I bribed security." Wade said proudly. The woman in front of them turned her head to look at them out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh, okay. How long is this flight?"

"I don't know, a day? It's a long flight kid, It's not like Kenya's very close to the states." Wade clicked his phone off and looked at Phantom. "Why? Is the plane making you uncomfortable? I get that, these things are death traps. I can't tell you how many times I've died on planes. Of course, that might be because I'm usually getting shot, but that doesn't change the fact that we're thousands of miles up in the air, traveling who knows how fast, and we're all trapped in here!" Wade was practically shouting at the end of his spiel, and Phantom could feel the jittery energy coming off of him. Phantom stared at him, wide eyed.

"Excuse me, sir," a flight attendant asked hesitatingly "could you keep your voice down, you're frightening the other- Oh My God!" the man exclaimed, a hand coming up to cover his mouth. Phantom felt annoyance flicker through him at the disgust radiating off the man, but he managed to tamp it down.

"Sure thing, sugar lips. Hey, do we get dinner with this flight? Do you guys serve tacos?"

The flight attendant whirled on his heels and rushed back to the front of the plane with a faint "I think I'm gonna be sick" that Phantom almost didn't hear. Phantom settled back into his seat with an annoyed huff.

"Well, that was rude," Wade said, setting his feet back up on the opposite seat. "Anyway, you good Danny?"

"Yeah," Phantom said. "I'm not scared of heights, but I think I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me when they bring food?"

"Sure thing, kid." Phantom hummed contently, and dropped off to sleep.

* * *

Peter climbed tiredly through the window into his bedroom, sore after his training session with Daredevil, who Peter thought was quite the slave driver when it came to training. He glanced around the room for Danny and, not seeing him, Peter concluded after a brief consideration that Danny was probably in the living room with Wade. Deadpool, he corrected himself, before shrugging out of his spider suit. Peter yawned tiredly and looked longingly at his bed, but his stomach gurgling hungrily was more important, so he pulled on some pajamas and padded quietly into the hall.

Absently, Peter noted that the TV was off, which had been unusual lately, but he ignored it, blinking groggily as he flipped on the light over the stove in the kitchen, careful to be quiet so he wouldn't wake either Danny or Wade. _Deadpool_, he reminded himself again, more forcefully this time.

He was halfway through a bowl of cereal before the lack of snoring registered in his brain, and he paused with the spoon halfway to his mouth, before slowly lowering it. If the TV being off was unusual, the absence of snoring was downright non-existent lately. Either Wade- _Deadpool_ \- was awake… or he wasn't here. Peter set his bowl quietly on the counter before slowly creeping into the living room. It was dark, but that didn't matter.

Silently, heart in his mouth, Peter leaned over the back of the couch, fully prepared for Deadpool to be wide awake and pointing a gun at him for the disturbance. Instead he was met with an empty couch. Peter leaned back upright and chewed on his thumb nail as the throbbing behind his eyes intensified. His stomach gurgled again and he sighed.

Where could they have gone? Peter asked himself as he walked back to the kitchen and finished his bowl of cereal. Maybe to Deadpool's apartment? Peter knew he had one, and he also knew that Danny was unreasonably attached to Deadpool right now. Maybe they would be back soon? As Peter set his rinsed out bowl on the counter he glanced at the clock. It blinked 4:36 a.m. at him mockingly, and he decided that he needed some sleep. He could deal with the rest of this later. Aunt May would home soon too, and he could talk to her about it after they'd both gotten some sleep. Three days was too long to be awake for, he decided absently as he curled into his blankets.

* * *

Phantom woke as soon as the hand touched his shoulder, body tense and fully ready to defend himself before he registered Wades soft voice. "Hey… Danny, wake up! I know you said to wake you when they brought food, but you were seriously just too cute. But we're here now, and we can go get some food at a restaurant. There are some seriously cool places to eat at around here." Wades soft babbling almost put Phantom back to sleep, but the thought of food, something that he shouldn't need as a ghost, brought him fully into consciousness. Wade kept babbling as Phantom blinked himself into awareness.

Phantom watched Wades face contently as he babbled while the plane emptied out around them. Wades jaundiced eyes were bright as he went over some of his favourite foods, and the ones that tasted the best even if they made his stomach hurt, and which ones catered to tourists. After about ten minutes, the plane was fully empty, and the rude flight attendant from before was standing awkwardly a few feet away, clearly needing to tell them to get off the plane, but not wanting to. Phantom sighed as he nudged Wade in the side.

"I'm awake." He said, and Wade abruptly stopped babbling.

"Oh! Hey Danny! Did you sleep okay? I'm sorry I didn't wake you for the in flight meal, but you were so cute, all drooly and peaceful." Phantom gave a fanged grin at Wade as he started off on another tangent, and nudged him before he got too distracted.

"You said food?" he prompted, and Wade lit up even more, if that were possible.

"Yeah! Let's go eat!" The flight attendant breathed a sigh of relief as Phantom and Wade passed him, and Phantom couldn't help but turn his head and bare his fangs at the man. And then, they were in the airport.


	33. Chapter 33

Peter snapped awake to someone shaking him. "Peter! Peter!" he looked around frantically until his eyes met those of his Aunt. his… very frazzled Aunt. "Peter! Where's Danny?!" And then Peter was just as awake as Aunt May, as the night - Morning?- came back to him.

"I… oh shit! They're gone!" he exclaimed, and Aunt May leaned away as Peter shot into a sitting position. "Aunt May! Peter and Danny aren't here!" May frowned at him

"Yeah, I'd kind of gathered. Where did they go?" she asked. Peter shook his head.

"I don't… I don't know. They weren't here when I got back from patrol, but that's all I know. I was kind of hoping that they would be here when I woke up." Peter looked up, and actually looked at his Aunt. it was very clear that she had just gotten home from work herself, her hair still up in a bun, and bags under her eyes. "What… what should we do? We can't just call the cops and tell them the extra-dimensional teen we were hosting has disappeared. Oh god! What if Hydra kidnapped them?!" May grabbed Peter's shoulder before he spiraled too far.

"We call Stark, that's what." Peter looked at her. "We call Stark, like we maye should have when Wade showed up here, and we tell him to fix this, because this is too much stress to be putting on a kid your age." Peter felt his eyes burn.

"Mr. Stark hasn't been answering his phone." he said quietly, cringing back as Mays eyes darkened.

"He what? But he's been honouring the Internship deal, right?"

"I mean… I get to work in the labs, but I've mostly just been working with the college interns, which is cool. But, um, Mr. Stark hasn't worked with me in at least a month?" Mays eyes went darker as her face twisted into a scowl. Peter watched as she stood up from her position next to his bed and left his room, and he scrambled to follow. "Wait! Aunt May, what are you…?"

"I'm going to call Stark, and I'm going to give that man a piece of my mind, and then I'm going to tell him that Danny is gone, and he is damn well going to listen to me, or he'll be waking up in a ditch." Mays voice was cold as she dug her phone out of her purse, and her words caused Peter to sit heavily on the couch, speechless.

May dialled Mr. Stark on her phone, and from the way her frown deepened, it had gone to voicemail. She dialed again, and again, her scowl deepening each time the phone went to voicemail, until Peters spider sense had started up a low hum and Peter had pressed himself fully into the corner of the couch. Just as Peter was convinced that May was going to grab her things and go over to Stark Industries to give Tony a piece of her mind in person, he heard the faint click of the phone being picked up.

"_Please tell me this is something important, May. I'm kind of in the middle of something_."

The words that May said to Mr. Stark did not bear repeating, and Peter was pretty sure that he'd tuned them out for his own safety anyway. By the end of the conversation, May looked a lot calmer, and Peter hadn't heard Mr. Stark try to defend himself for the last half hour of the conversation. May was silent for a minute, and Peter didn't think he'd ever heard Mr. Stark sound as small as he did when he spoke next.

"_I'm very sorry, Mrs. Parker. I promise I'll think about what I'm doing more in the future_."

"You damn well better!"

"_Was… was that all_?" May was silent for a short moment, as she gathered her thoughts.

"No. that was not all." Peter could almost swear he heard Mr. Stark whimper. "Danny's gone missing." and those words were all it took for to sound himself again.

"_What?! How long has he been missing? Never mind, I'll be there in fifteen minutes, we can go over everything then. Is your apartment secure? Are you two safe? Did Hydra take him?_" Peter breathed a sigh of relief. Help was on the way.

* * *

Dr Stephanie Martin stared at the blue folder sitting innocently dead center of her desk as though it had personally offended her. Inside the folder, if she cared to open it again, were the reports from the remaining eight soldiers who had returned from her fatally failed operation to capture the 'ghost'. In front of her desk stood the soldier who had spearheaded the operation. Dr Martin glanced up at the soldier, who stood at attention with her hair in a ponytail, wearing a stoney expression.

"You're telling me that a madman and the subject wiped out nearly two hundred soldiers on their own, with no help from anyone else?" Dr Martin asked, her tone carefully devoid of the horror that she felt at the knowledge.

"Yes, ma'am." The soldier responded promptly. Dr Martin ran a hand through her hair, tugging slightly on the ends.

"You're sure you were the only eight alive?"

"Yes ma'am. If anyone else was alive, they aren't anymore." The soldiers tone was blank, completely devoid of any emotion, past the point of forced nonchalance, clearly lacking any emotional response. Dr Martin nodded to herself.

"At ease, soldier. You are dismissed." At Dr Martins words, the soldiers shoulders relaxed slightly, and she saluted before turning on her heel and leaving Dr Martin to her thoughts.

Dr Martin cursed into the silence of her office. She was dead. She had eight soldiers left to her name, all of whom were loyal to hydra, and hydra only. It would only take a single word from a higher up for them to turn around and kill Dr Martin in her sleep.

Dr Martin flipped the folder open, and stared at the first page again. It was a list of numbers and letters, each combination representing a soldier. Eight of them scattered throughout the page had a little green check next to them. The rest were crossed out in red. The other eight pages in the folder were brief accounts of the mission, each from another of the surviving soldiers.

The words contained on those pages told a bloody account too brutal for Dr Martin to read through a second time, but she knew what was contained on those pages. She knew exactly what the subject and the madman were capable of.

Dr Martin dropped her head into her hands. She was dead, no matter what she did. She had another two months before madam hydras next check in, but even if she got close to recapturing the subject, either the madman or the subject would kill her. Dr Martin sucked in a ragged breath. She needed leverage. Something that would stop them in their tracks. Something to lure them in.

* * *

Peter sat with his legs folded watching the sunset from the top of the building where he met with Daredevil for training. Mr. Stark had been very frantic when he had arrived at their apartment, and after a brief rundown of the last few weeks, and Mr. Stark chewing him out for even talking to Deadpool, they had come up with a gameplan. Which, to Peters dismay, had basically amounted to "Tell Daredevil what happened and wait".

So wait Peter did, under the purpling sky streaked with pinks and reds, for the second night in a row. Peter had told Mr. Stark that it would be more productive to talk to Daredevil at his next training night, tomorrow, when double D was expecting him, but Mr. Stark had waved him off and told him something like "I'm sure the man will notice if you hang out on the roof long enough". Peter stood up and stretched. He figured he might as well do a little swinging around before coming back to the building, seeing as he didn't think that Daredevil was going to show tonight anyway.

When Peter came back to the roof, an hour later, his spidey sense started up a low hum. He scanned the surrounding roofs, and, finding nothing, settled back down to wait, although he settled into a crouch this time, instead of sitting down like he wanted to. After about fifteen minutes in a crouch, his spidey sense finally seemed to calm down, and Peter relaxed a little, standing up and stretching his legs.

"You are an entire day early." Peter let out a totally manly, not-shrill-what-so-ever shriek at the voice behind him, spinning around and landing in a fighting stance, before relaxing at the sight of Daredevil standing, arms crossed, right in front of him. Daredevils lips were pulled into a barely there smirk, and Peter narrowed his eyes.

"You did that on purpose!" Peter exclaimed. Daredevils lips twitched.

"Day early." Daredevil said. "Why are you here? Did you forget what night we usually meet?" Peter shook his head.

"No, no I needed to talk to you." Peters shoulders slumped, and Daredevils head tilted slightly as he waved his hand as though to say 'go on'. Peter cleared his throat. "Sooo, um." Peter coughed guiltily. "Ah, Danny may have, or well, no he definitely, and Deadpool too, um, well. They were, you know, both of them were staying at my apartment, right? So, um. Danny's been like, really clingy with Deadpool, and I guess that makes sense, because he said that he watched Deadpool die, which would be, um, _super_ traumatizing, but I don't know how someone could die and then not be dead, unless they were resuscitated, but they didn't mention any-"

"_Kid!_" Daredevil snapped, cutting off Peters nervous rambling. "Is there a point to this?"

"Oh, yeah! Right. So Danny and Deadpool disappeared." Daredevils jaw tightened at Peters words, and any hint of a smile on his face completely vanished. "Like, three days ago. Mr. Stark thought you might be able to help."

"Deadpool took Danny with him when he skipped town?" Peter nodded jerkily. "_Dear Lord, forgive me for my ignorance. I truly thought Deadpool would have more self control than this_." Daredevil muttered to himself. Peter got the feeling he wasn't supposed to have heard that, so he didn't say anything about it. "Alright, when does Stark want to talk to me, and what's the current plan?"


End file.
